Hello Again
by halcyonranhuer
Summary: After the passing of the Vongola Decimo, Reborn finds a lost toddler that acts and looks exactly like Tsuna. He then brings the child back to Vongola, for everyone needs a little healing.
1. Funeral

**So I have been away as I was busy and I thought of an idea as I was being busy and hence I typed this down. (It's just a subversion of the Babysitting fic I wrote) That said, do enjoy. And this was not as supposedly as depressing as I made to be, it was meant to be humorous, but I went all out on the funeral scene...**

* * *

It ended too quietly.

Perhaps, this was the leading reason to the roaring defiance within them. Denial, disbelief, impossibility and that all of it was just a bad, bad dream.

Maybe an enemy sought to play with their minds and this was a conjuring of mist flames illusions, even if Mukuro and Chrome had yet to detect them.

It should be. It should be the case. It was always the case for the last ten years.

Even so, they would occasionally snap back to reality, as repulsive as it was.

The scent of lilies was disgustingly nauseating. The Storm would think, as he gazed upon the white chrysanthemum. Jyuudaime would never wear so many lilies on him. Jyuudaime would never leave like everyone else he knew; like everything he had known. Did you not accept me? Why would you just go? He asked, but it was only echoed back to his own self.

The air was too cold for comfort. The Rain would think, as he watched the small droplets of water sliding off the umbrellas. When was the last time a downpour reflected such chilliness? Before he decided to jump off the school building? He thought as the bouquet of hydrangeas shook in his hand. Indeed, that was when.

There was too much black. The Sun would think, as he looked upon the scenery. Black did not suit on Kyoko and Haru. Black did not suit the sky. Black did not suit him. It made his rays looked too bleak. He tugged on the pink carnation in his right pocket as he pushed back the thought that he would not shine as brightly again.

The hymns sounded the least bit soothing. The Lightning would think as he listened. They were too slow and too soft. His big brother always knew that he liked being loud. Being loud covered up everything. Being loud made him known. Being loud was what big brother had always done, to convince enemies and protect his family. He gripped the orchid in his trembling hands. Yet it was the same big brother who left without a sound. Impossible. He shuffled his feet.

There were too many people. The Cloud would think as he kept backing in the shadows. This was too big a crowd, it made him feel like biting them all to death. Yet, for what reason? There would be no more carnivore to come up and challenge him properly, to talk to him normally and equally. He looked at his hand, he had pulled out part of hyacinth from a bouquet in his blinded rage. Hibird never sang. It just rested awkwardly on his head, chirping something forlorn and missing its other favourite spot.

There were too much tears. The Mist would think, as he watched hunched bags, red eyes and crouching figures. Was parting of such sorrow? He never cried, not even when he was tortured, exploited and betrayed. Not even when his body suffered and his soul torn. He never did. So why was one side of his face slightly wet and his nose stinging? He must be sensitive to the lily he picked up earlier. It had to be it.

The heart felt so lonely. The other Mist would think, as she clutched her chest and twisted the dark red rose she held in her hand. Loneliness was painful, but the loneliness after the experience of love became deeply trenched grief. Now what else could fill that hole up? Nothing, a voice said, but that single dark red rose in your hand. She refused to acknowledge that.

It was reality, some sad and hushed mumbles from the older members would say. No, it was not. They would protest silently in return.

Because those old men did not know that somehow or another, he was always there through the difficulties, the perils, leading them so bravely onward. The sky that encompassed everything and always shined on, never giving an indication that he would ever leave.

They had sworn to protect.

But whatever happened to that?

"It's not your fault." Sharmal said. "You cannot fight against something intangible."

And so they watched, disguising their pain, as he struggled haplessly, thinning, waning, weakening. And they continued watching, until he died.

It was such tragic comedy of a brutal irony. To them and to everyone else.

He pulled his fedora, shadowing his features even more. His other hand held a peace lily, slightly wilting from his tight grip. Everyone was required to put a flower into the coffin; Vongola's tradition as a symbol of parting. He could count them. Lilies, carnations, roses, gladioli, tulips, orchids, hyacinth, hydrangea, anemone, chrysanthemum, so on and so forth.

"Momento Mori" was a part of Mafia sayings.

Bullshit, he thought.

"Nascentus Morimur", someone else had said.

Also bullshit, he thought as he stuffed the flower into his pocket. He then briskly left, unseen by anyone.

The priest now said something about the lid opening for one final time to bid farewell.

They would not lift their heads, to see what was encased in that beautifully carved, black box.

* * *

A week passed and the Vongola mansion remained deathly quiet.

Timeteo had taken over for the moment in name, once again as Vongola Nono, just as so to keep things in order. There were protests from his Guardians saying that he should care for his health, however to prevent any form of corruption to the system the Decimo had set up in his reign, Timeteo had insisted he would lead Vongola for the time being.

The load was then divided among Xanxus and Basil. It was surprising on the former's end to some of Vongola's older board members, but everyone who knew the Decimo saw that he had become more diligent upon the failing of the Decimo's health, determined to scrap as much load as possible of his Don's shoulders.

"There's a mission for the Guardians." Basil said one day to Gokudera, who sat in the Decimo's former office, admiring the present his Jyuudaime gave him nine Christmas' ago.

"Why are you telling me?" The Storm then snarled.

"It should be everyone, I told the others to turn up." The now CEDEF leader muttered, rubbing his temple. "In fact, I was hoping you all would keep your act up."

Gokudera shrugged as he held the brooch, having gone hot in his head. "We were only together because of Jyuudaime. It makes sense that everyone is now gone. Reborn is also gone. And I'll also be gone in no time."

Basil felt something flared up within. This, he thought as his anger warmed over, you all are just disrespecting Sawada-dono and Reborn-san.

"You sound like a kicked puppy, Storm. Were your bonds that weak?" He growled. Gokudera then stood up abruptly to grab Basil by the collar.

Basil was barely intimidated. "Where will you go then?"

Silver locks fell over his face, having gone unkempt and dishevelled from the lack of proper care. His grip loosened on Basil's collar as he ran his hand over his hair, muttering something inaudible. He felt his features scrunching up and his heart ached painfully, but no tears would flow out.

"Reborn has called for all the Decimo's Guardians to gather in the HQ located down South Italy." Basil mentioned, as he readjusted his tie.

There was a pregnant pause before the Guardian spoke.

"It will then be the last mission I would do with the title of Jyuudaime's right-hand man." Gokudera mumbled, steeling himself for whatever reason, as he pushed opened the oak doors to exit the room.

He saw everyone gathered the next day, a distant kind of solemn atmosphere greeting him as he entered the main meeting room.

He caught Yamamoto's tired smile. "I tried." The Rain said with a resigned sigh. "I tried to play baseball. I even tried to act as a coach. I just… could not."

Yamamoto's lips failed to articulate rest of what he wanted to say. The only thing that kept me moving was Tsuna, because my life as 'Yamamoto Takeshi alone' had ended on the day I pitched myself beside the railing of the school's rooftop.

He saw Sasagawa slouched figure against the wall. "I found no achievement in boxing to the extreme." He choked. "Kyoko doesn't even cheer as much anymore."

Sawada would not be there to train with me anymore, half the original fun already buried under, was Sasagawa's bitter thought.

He saw Lambo's tear stained face. The Bovino was apparently still in between hiccups and sniffles. Lambo did not say anything to Gokudera-shi, just glanced up at him and back down. "His brother was no longer here", they came like knives into his chest and they hurt, and so as a response, he could only cry.

The other three remained far apart in the room. Hibari at one corner by himself, with furrowed eyebrows and a frown. Mukuro, who was on the other end of the room, diagonally away from Hibari, had a melancholic look set within his eyes, but he would try to look as passive as possible. Chrome was beside Mukuro and she looked as if all life was just robbed off her. The Mist and Cloud never fought nor bickered.

And they all stood still like single Elements on their own, without something to bind them together.

The door then clicked opened.

No doubt it was Reborn, but their eyes trailed to something else, familiar and equally foreign. For in his hands was a mob of brown hair and caramel doe eyes.

"Chaos." The hitman greeted.

* * *

 **Momento Mori: Remember your own mortality**

 **Nascentus Morimur: When we are born, we start to die (loosely translated)**

 **If it is not clear. Tsuna dies from illness.**


	2. Tsuna

**This was supposed to be updated with chapter 1 so it flows better haha. Thanks for support you all lovely readers have given this story!**

 **I hope this chapter gives more an in depth relationship between Tsuna and Reborn.**

* * *

There was no reason to stay. He came to the conclusion.

After all, training and teaching little family heir runts was only due to an order given. He was eventually a hitman down his very core.

Even if Dino pleaded him to stay, he still would leave. Vongola, Cavallone or otherwise.

"Then why do you remain by the kid's side for so long kora?" Colonello asked him once. He smiled, shot around, distracted them and never did give a proper answer.

He would never anyway.

 _I saw a second family with Dame-Tsuna_ , was something he could never say, even if he were about to die.

He had students in the past. Majority just saw him as just a teacher reincarnated from the depths of hell. Even his closest student, Dino, saw him as a mentor figure at the very most. That was why Dino was still eventually able to part with him. Tsuna, however, saw him as family, a sibling he never had, the other parent he never knew, the tough love he never received, a guiding pole which no one but Reborn gave.

Hence, he clung to Reborn like a leech, for the lack of better description. Even so, a leech would let go, but Tsuna, it was as if he had invisible unbreakable hooks. It was just this sort of possessiveness the brunet had with everyone. Apart from Reborn, Tsuna's Guardian Mukuro had detected it, but not without cheer.

For Reborn, it was not just reflected in the Acrobaleno-trials. When he decided to go away after Tsuna became Decimo and worthy of being termed as 'Neo-Vongola Primo', Tsuna actually found him when he was on a stakeout in a decrepit building and in Russia. Once, when he was three weeks late on a mission report, he actually had twenty-seven hundred missed calls on his phone. When he suddenly disappeared one night without contact and only came back after three months, Tsuna was entirely out of wreck.

It did not end there. He would catch the Decimo entirely stressed over the paper load and worrying every four days or so on each and every one of his family member, including the Varia. After all, being Don means sitting on the desk and majorly acting behind the scenes. However, no one seemed to notice all this at first. Tsuna never showed his fears on his face. The Decimo everyone knew was always smiling.

Eventually, Reborn would come to realise that with his presence, Tsuna could actually calm down a fair bit. So he stayed to make sure the brunet and Reborn's hard work did not throw himself off the roof in his constant frenzy.

Now as he stood in Namimori, a place he would most likely never visit again. He had to mention something.

"That Dame-Tsuna's very selfish."

He walked along the streets to every household, retracing the steps he and his former student used to take. He paused near the Sawada's household. No one was in and around. Tsuna's Guardians who came back avoided the place like plague and Iemitsu had taken his wife with him somewhere to ease her sorrow.

There were plans for selling the place. He said, it contained too much memories for Nana, she would often grow hysteric.

Bullshit, Reborn thought once again. Isn't it you who hadn't been home for so many years that she ended up having her son as her only mental fort and pillar? She may be emotional, loving and still attached to you like some lovebird, but that stability only comes from her only child she single-handedly cared for.

"Eventually." Reborn stared at the nameplate bitterly. "You never really understood your family."

He must have been lost in his thoughts for so long, that when he heard tiny footsteps running, something small collided with his leg. Of course, Reborn did not budge, but that tiny thing rolled a few steps away.

It was a child. Reborn could make the little creature out. The child flopped up and blinked, hair over his face as he struggled to stand up again.

Reborn's eyes instinctively widened and the name tumbled out faster than he could rein it back. "…Tsuna."

The child finally got on his feet and looked at Reborn curiously.

* * *

He was barely three, Reborn supposed. That child was fairly small; the hitman could even think that he was just two or less. However, since "Tsuna" was able to stand and walk quiet properly, albeit quite clumsily, Reborn thought the boy would be older than that.

Reborn approached the child, but "Tsuna" started to stumble and run away. Though, it was more of a waddle more than a run. Reborn chuckled at the way the boy tried to make his way out slowly, sniffling and about to cry. The child then tripped on his feet and landed face flat on the concrete.

 _How…very Dame-Tsuna like…_

Suddenly the sniffles grew louder and child started crying faced down.

He paused, suddenly unsure of what to do. Of all the children he encountered were either Mafia bred or snot-nose brats, which he always kicked around.

The hitman was never one to pacify children. He was a hitman for Pete's sake. He rubbed his eyes tiredly as he tried to figure out something, before the scene got even more out of hand. Leon then propped its head out from his breast pocket.

Reborn then smiled.

"Hey Dame-, I mean kid, look at this."

"Tsuna" sat up with teary eyes and watched as Reborn's pinched Leon's face slightly and squished the gecko on its cheeks. Immediately, the boy stopped crying and started clapping his hands before trying to reach for Leon.

Reborn was a little apprehensive at first when Leon scuttled down onto the small hands. He was expecting that "Tsuna" might squish it like a poor rag doll, not that Leon could not take it, but rather it was that Leon's part of his personal items.

But "Tsuna" only stroked it on the head and smiled at Reborn, in which the hitman could not help but return the innocent gesture. Reborn then swiftly plucked the gecko of his hand.

However instead of demanding for the creature, the boy approached him and patted him on the face as if saying 'thank you'.

Usually, most children would have scoot away after the sentence, or that if they could not get what they want. Tsuna who was extremely shy, should have already done it a lot earlier. Reborn was not exactly "Mr Neighbourhood Friendly" with his all suspicious black outfit and fedora.

"You know you shouldn't warm up to strangers that quickly. Especially after one that just made a funny face out of a gecko." Reborn said as "Tsuna" tried hugging his arm. "Anyway, what is your name?"

The boy looked at him slightly lost.

"N-a-m-e." He then articulated each word.

"Tsu…" Reborn's heart leapt a beat.

"…Tsu…"

"What?"

The boy looked confused as if he just forgot the second part of his name and from what it seemed, he most probably did. Reborn then gawked a little.

"Your parents." The hitman then asked. "Where?"

"Tsuna" did not understand. Reborn sighed and realised he had to lower his vocabulary on another notch. Nana did mention once that Tsuna was not exactly a fast learner and usually failed to catch words as quickly. Hence it was only at four, when Tsuna started talking in proper sentences.

It was true when Reborn had first came to teach him, though that did change once Tsuna had access to his full powers. The Decimo learned and spoke fluent Italian in four months.

"Momma, papa? Where?"

"Tsuna" shook his head and looked at Reborn curiously.

Reborn thought that he wouldn't think too much, after all as much as he hated to say it, Tsuna was already-

Never mind.

"I'll just leave you here for your parents to pick you up. They wouldn't like their child associating with morally ambiguous looking men." Reborn then tipped his fedora and headed his way. "Tsuna" stumbled behind him a few steps, but the hitman was quick to disappear from sight.

Only to come back five hours later.

Truthfully, Reborn hadn't left. He remained in one of Namimori's deserted cafes, sipped an espresso begrudgingly since it tasted nothing like the ones Tsuna made with his mind whirling about that child.

He saw the boy still sitting beside the Sawada's house. It was almost sundown.

Strange. Had no one picked him up yet?

Reborn then jumped out from the bushes, a little after two hours, when it nine and night. No one had come. There were a few concerned glances from a passer-bys but otherwise no one really approached the boy.

Upon seeing Reborn, "Tsuna" laughed and waddled over, hugging his leg.

"Wait…"

"Oh my! Are you his guardian?" Reborn recognised her as one of the neighbourhood ladies that recently moved in to this area. Apparently she was walking by the corner and just caught them both on scene. Reborn then pondered how much guard he had let down around the boy.

She then started rambling much to his dismay. "I was really worried about the child. He's been running all morning around this house like he wanted to get in. Since there was no one at home for a few days, I thought someone locked him out by accident! Thank goodness you were here though."

Reborn smiled and nodded in which the lady blushed madly, scooped the child up and headed away, just so to prevent anymore questioning scenarios.

"I have got even more questions now." He sighed.

But for safety checks, he had waited with "Tsuna" in the same area he had met the boy in the hopes someone might come looking for the boy. No one turned up and that lead to the hitman heading down to the local police box, only to find out no missing cases.

Hence, there was one thing left to do, to at least save Vongola from crumbling within.

"Are you the guilty conscience left behind by Dame-Tsuna?" Reborn then recalled those sad eyes, dulled by disease, repeating apology after apology.

No more of that.

"Tsuna" smiled and rubbed his face on his stomach.

If that was the case, then maybe the hitman could start believing in miracles.

* * *

 **Imagines Reborn sitting there with little Tsuna... Awww. Reborn has not grown soft, he's...he's just biased to mini-Tsuna haha.**


	3. Hello

**I am sorry I am a bit late on all my other updates. It is May and its also when school throws all the projects at their students. I had this chapter typed down earlier so I am going to post this first.**

 **Thank you all for the support! Hopefully I managed to describe how they would act, tensed up, blinded and all, after Tsuna's death.**

* * *

Silence.

The clock ticked on to the fifth minute and Reborn decided to prop 'Tsuna' onto the table, getting quite tired of their appalled faces. He had been very much unamused looking at them.

After all, even if 'Tsuna' had not been moving much in Reborn's one arm grip, he was quite uncomfortable hanging from the hitman's hand. Reborn had felt his small fidgets and was a little guilty to have made the child feel uncomfortable.

Wait. Since when had he become so considerate? The hitman thought in slight annoyance as he moved to straighten the clothes.

For Pete's sake, the inner voice said, he was a hitman. He looked at the boy again. If that child was really Dame-Tsuna, he could definitely take more than hanging down like a rag doll- not that Reborn was being entirely careless on the boy, of course.

He sighed inaudibly as he absent-mindedly patted the fluffy hair. 'Tsuna' cooed happily and grabbed his wrist with tiny fingers.

"Right." Surprisingly, it was Lambo who regained his composure first. The Lightening blinked and then opened his mouth, closed it, tugged at his horns a little, and then managed to find his words again. "That's..."

"Jyuudaime..." He was then suddenly interrupted by Gokudera, who finally budged from his initial position. The man then staggered slowly to the toddler, who looked at him curiously with wide-eyes. He came to a pause once more and scrunched up his face, seemingly out of frustration, relief or sorrow, Reborn could not tell.

"Tsunayoshi has a child?" Mukuro finally asked from the corner of the room solemnly. He was smiling coldly, but only Chrome knew better than that. He paused for a moment, fingers over his mouth. "Of which lady was he with?"

"Mukuro-sama." Chrome whispered softly for only the two of them to hear. "Please stop."

However, the other chose to ignore her and continued. "The girl called Kyoko?"

"NOT WITH KYOKO TO THE EXTREME!" Ryohei yelled out, but it was not for a protest out of Kyoko but belief that Decimo was a very righteous man.

"Tsuna-nii never went out with anyone! Much less even… have a child." Lambo snapped defensively, quickly talking over the Sun. He would shudder at the thought of Mafia women he did not personally know; he would not anyway, given the choice. They had a voracious appetite for money, often more than not, tempting men with carnal lust. He always remembered the bland look on the Decimo's face, whenever one of these…things crawled up on to his lap, uninvited.

"Then what is another plausible explanation? His clone?" Mukuro retorted as quickly and demandingly, his tone exceedingly high, a stark contrast to his usual calm and sly demeanour. "I'll go check on Verde if you'd wish so."

Chrome lowered her head apologetically at the flabbergasted Lightning.

"Impossible." Yamamoto sighed, shaking his head. "If that's the case, he would have told us."

"Then what if he chooses not to? Or maybe he never trusted us in the first place? What if he had never trusted you-" Mukuro then turned to Yamamoto, who immediately placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.

"One more word." Yamamoto interrupted, uncharacteristically feral. "I'll make sure you won't talk again."

"You can try-"

"Herbivores." Hibari snarled from the other corner, unsheathing his weapons. "I'll bite you all to death if you start crowding."

Yamamoto narrowed his eyes as Mukuro threw back a laugh, muttering something along the lines of "foolish" and "skylark"- a sign of disrespect and mockery- the Cloud thought in anger and made the first hit at the closest of the two he saw. He then swung his other free hand at the other.

Metal against metal echoed and soon flames manifested. On the third hit, Gokudera turned around, more irritated than ever as Ryohei and Chrome rushed in to try to stop the fight. Both tried to pry them apart by each standing in the Cloud's way, but Hibari was extremely relentless in his blows and the other two, who rarely ever started a physical fight only when prompted, refused to back down.

"You sure it's not your stupid trick on the ten-year bazooka, cow!" The silver head then shouted, as the fight escalated in the room. Lambo, who never took offence from the older man, the one who rarely even bothered with feelings, suddenly felt as if his whole being was insulted and he immediately replied strangely feeling very emotional. Lightning flames sparked from his ring, threatening to blow up.

"Why the fucking hell would you think like that, you damn bastard? That I am disrespecting Tsuna-nii, the Vongola, to this extend, to play a joke on him like that? I had it with your selfish ways. Stop pushing your guilt and the you cannot 'protect him and shit' stuff on me, fucking lapdog!"

Gokudera threw a hard punch in the teens' face before the last word even came out proper. He had to, his mind chanted, he had to.

Reborn pulled a trigger, no one heard the sound. Perhaps Chrome, but she was too busy pushing Mukuro away from an advancing whirl of yellow, blue and purple flames. When the hitman was prepared to make a move ranging close enough to turn them into living Swiss cheese, fuck ethics and morality, 'Tsuna' begun to cry.

It was then the fight came to a sudden halt, like the tires of the car coming to screeching stop, with Reborn wanting more to kill than ever and the room as silent as it was before.

Gokudera rushed to the boy, but Reborn quickly scooped him up, before the guardian's hands could reach him.

"Now listen up, you sorry fuckers. I am going to talk, explain. No interruptions." The hitman hissed visibly, unusual- he would be more impassive or slightly annoyed. The boy in his arms now struggled to bury his face into the nook of his neck. "He, when I found him, had no parents, no connections or whatsoever."

"Name." Hibari then growled, extremely tensed.

"He doesn't remember." Reborn replied. "There are tests I got Verde running now but-"

The Cloud stalked up and it was the exact moment where 'Tsuna' chose to turn around and see the man approaching, in his view, very menacingly. So he started tearing up in between hiccups, in which the hitman turned his body away from the man. Hibari stopped quickly, and it was not just because of that. Everyone had saw that Reborn looked as if he was about to kill.

Then, they saw orange flames erupted- maybe from all the killing intent. Reborn was about to drop the boy, when he realised the flames were not hurting him. He saw the boy all coated in the orange and was only even furthermore convinced, although logically wise he should not think it was Dame-Tsuna.

Hibari came closer and realised that it was a sky flame barrier, a technique only created by the Vongola Decimo.

"Carnivore." He said with great surprise and exhaled. Hibird chirped at the back. It settled on his shoulder and starting singing the Namimori school anthem.

It was not long where 'Tsuna' peeked out from Reborn's shoulder once again and stared at the bird, the flame barrier dissipating. The hitman actually had not want to put the boy down, but the phone in his pocket had been buzzing the fourth time.

"Yes. Yes." He muttered beneath his breath, knowing all was fine now and he put the boy on the floor. He exited the room silently and swiftly- 'Tsuna' had not noticed that and he waddled to Hibari, or Hibird for the matter instead.

Hibari shifted a little as 'Tsuna' fixated his eyes on the bird instead. The man then moved down in a rigid manner, all the Guardians watching intently, as Hibird fluttered onto the brunet's head. It settled down and then chirped happily, settling comfortably in a spot.

Its favourite spot- familiarity. Too familiar. Hibird never settled in so quickly with a stranger.

Hibari knew and his grey eyes widened.

"Carnivore." He said again, some strange thing was welling within him. "Carnivore." He repeated the word like a mantra. 'Tsuna' then bumped on his leg. Hibari felt the side of his lips curling up and in which, the boy, realising what the older man was doing, returned the gesture. He smiled, and in a way like how the carnivore always would.

Hibari knew.

His carnivore was back. Even with whatever logic it defied, he would believe. The blinded rage calmed, the cloud now found his sky.

* * *

"Verde."

"If you want me to do a research for you, do pick up the phone next time." The scientist was slightly snappy on the other end.

"I was busy…attending to some things." Reborn said.

"Women." Reborn could hear Verde mutter under his breath and he snorted. _Babysitting duties. Again, you mean._

"Well then, World's Greatest Hitman. Why would you send me samples of the Vongola Decimo's DNA?" Verde proceeded to ask. Reborn actually nearly doubled over.

"Pardon?"

"The hair samples you gave me for analysing. You know yesterday, when you broke my lab door while barging in, dumping them in my face and insisted you wanted the reports by twenty-four hours-" Verde then stopped for a second. "Though it is already twenty-four hours and fifteen minutes since you failed to pick up the phone twenty minutes earlier. Have you finally grown senile?"

The hitman ignored the spite in the other's voice. "You said it was Tsuna's."

"Yes." Verde replied, quite annoyed on the other end. "One hundred percent. I tested them three times if you did not know. I'll be going…"

The scientist then paused rather unnaturally.

"What is wrong?" Reborn asked.

"Nothing. Nothing." Verde said as if he contemplated on something whether to tell or not, which he did not and he quickly hung up. Reborn looked at the phone curiously.

However, there was bigger news for now. He then stopped at the door. He felt a little too happy. Too happy. He pressed his hand to his chest and Leon popped up from his breast pocket, slightly confused.

"Nothing." He pushed the gecko down and realised he was grinning, something inside screaming, "Bullshit to every Mafia rule I know!". So uncharacteristic, he thought and felt a little lame. He stilled himself, before entering the room.

He saw Tsuna spinning around, curious as to how Hibird remained so firm on his head. The Guardians had small smiles on their faces.

"Chaos." He said for the second time today and they all looked at him. Tsuna then ran to him, albeit a little unsteady.

"Tsuna." He said, feeling the name so naturally slide for the first time. "Dame-Tsuna."

Tsuna then gave the biggest, brightest smile that anyone would to him.

It took a spilt second for the rest of the Guardians to realise this. They had seen Hibari's reaction, but was a little hesitant still. _It was impossible_.

Gokudera was the first to come up. Tsuna spun around and looked at the man curiously, somehow knowing the older was not going to hurt him. The man knelt down, wrapped his arms tightly around the boy.

There was something wet gathering around his eyes, his nose stung and his ears he knew, was red. He was saying "Jyuudaime", but in all honesty, he could not really hear himself.

There, he crouched, hugged and cried. Crying as if something broke in him and he did not even know what. The storm within came to a stop, he saw the sky.

* * *

 **Awww.**

 **Anyway onto why Hibari believed so quickly, I always take it he and Tsuna had a sort of special relationship on their own, like Tsuna with Mukuro or Tsuna with Lambo, as seen the Future Arc where Adult Tsuna only gave Hibari the details of his faked death, so I thought there must be some kind of special trust in between them- very different from the other Guardians.**


	4. Welcome

**Next chapter is up. Thank you very much for the support on this story. It is supposed to be hilarious (repetition) and I hope I am building up to it haha!**

* * *

After a minute or more, Tsuna who consciously tried not to move too much when Gokudera came to put his arms around him, now wriggled out his hands and patted Gokudera on the head. Perhaps it had been something in his young mind that alarmed him that the man for some reason was so very sad. Maybe, Tsuna thought, he might had been quite hurt.

"P-ain. P-ain, fly!" He said the words very earnestly, although he slurred over them. Following that, he waved his arms in the air as he gave the man a toothy grin. "Gone?"

The Storm was a little appalled, not understanding what the boy just did. He turned to look at Yamamoto, who was the nearest to him, in which the Rain Guardian just gave an apologetic face and a weak shrug of his shoulders.

"Yes, yes, Dame-Tsuna. The pain is gone. Can't you see that this _idiota_ looks much better now?" Reborn then casually replied. Upon seeing the Elements' puzzled faces whom they reminded him of lost chickens. he had to bite his lip to hide an ungracious chuckle from within.

"He was asking if the pain is gone."

"Pain?" Gokudera fumbled his hands around to check his body. "I am not hurt- oh."

He then smiled at the child as Hibird fluttered about in his hair. "Thank you, Jyuudaime. The pain is gone."

Yamamoto and Ryohei grinned widely. Lambo managed a lazy smile. Hibari scoffed, but a small upward curl of his lips could be seen. Reborn stood watching, small smile also evident. Chrome chuckled at the scene, then turned to look at Mukuro.

He was no longer there.

* * *

The Mist drummed his fingers impatiently across the table top, unsure of what was actually the spiralling mess inside of him. Five hours it had been since the encounter and he refused to interact with the Guardians (or anyone for the matter) since then. He thought about the past; thought that he had never been one to register emotions, until Sawada Tsunayoshi came along.

They were then connected, their minds, always a part of each other- something he had always cherished, relished and took great pride in.

Yet he felt no connection from the child at all.

If the child was Sawada Tsunayoshi, shouldn't there be a re-kindle of their bonds?

"One hundred percent Sawada Tsunayoshi? He came back? To life?" He laughed coldly and moved a hand towards his cursed eye. The real Sawada Tsunayoshi laid in the box buried six feet deep. Dead people don't just come back to life. He must be mad like them to even believe whatever Reborn or Verde was sprouting, ex-Acrobaleno, wise and experienced, brilliant beyond measures or not.

Though he also knew both were never the type to lie anyway, though that deep trench that existed between him and child now said otherwise.

It was horrendous, no one knew the agony of the sudden wave of cold emptiness that rushed to his core when Tsunayoshi took his last breath. An irreplaceable gaping hole that man left and he had no idea what to do with it.

No one could ever understand that. They did not, never had it- that something precious from interconnected souls.

The monotonic drone from the laptop played on. He shuffled the papers, and re-shuffled them again, for the umpteen time.

He would kill and torture. He would laugh and toy with people like puppets. He would destroy the Vongola from within. If all these actions brought him the relief that he lost.

They wouldn't though, he secretly admitted. There was zero pleasure in anything anymore.

The buzz from his cell interrupted his thoughts and he saw that it was Chrome.

"What is it?" He muttered, slightly agitated. It better be something urgent. It better be something crucial. It better be nothing about that carbon copy of-

"We can't find Bossu. We brought him out to the mansion's gardens to play a little and now we don't know where he went." She panted and then abruptly paused (he could hear the chaos on the other end, Gokudera screaming how he should die) as if suddenly unsure of what to say. Mukuro remained silent, waiting for her to continue. "Please do help."

"There's Reborn." He replied blandly.

"He just disappeared..." Chrome protested. "He might be trapped in one of our illusions traps. You know some of them are rather elaborate since we have one of our secret bases here-"

"One has to recognise the presence of Mist flames before even getting trapped in our illusions. That. That is just a child. He may conjure some of Decimo's technique, but he certainly wouldn't be able to distinguish flames." He added coolly. "And don't call me anymore, I am very busy with the mission reports."

"…We finished them all yesterday, Mukuro-sama. Ken-kun, Chikusa-kun, M.M-chan, everyone helped."

His mouth parted mid-way, thinking of a reply. Then he finally said. "You know Mafia scum, making their workers like dogs."

"Only if we accept the missions in the first place." Chrome sounded angry with him, the second time. He long forgotten about the first. "Stop running away, Mukuro-sama."

She had said that to him before. There was also Tsunayoshi there. They were all sixteen years old. Bleeding, dying, hated, brandished traitor laying pathetic and weak on the floor, Tsunayoshi had picked him up again. Just like from the water prison and the Vindice, Tsunayoshi chose to pick him up again.

 _Mafia scum are really lost in the head._

 _Sorry about that, it is a nutty job. Maybe that is even why I still ended up becoming Vongola Decimo eventually._

 _I am not talking about you. You are just Tsunayoshi to me._

"Chrome Dokuro." Shut up. He bellowed and turned off the call. He stared at the papers laid before him, then finally sucking in a breath and throwing the cell onto the floor. Metal and screen bits littered over.

 _That child._

He stormed out the stairs. There were pockets of Russian Mafia Group spies in the vicinity. Vongola Decimo's passing had been in secrecy and there were only rumours of it. Mukuro needed to make sure they catch nothing of the trail.

 _Is not._

He would torture them slowly, let them bleed out from their necks and wrists and as they writhed in agony, spitting out information and pain, he would laugh at that pitiable sight. He's always like that.

 _Sawada Tsunayoshi._

And maybe the Decimo would come at him with that ever beautiful frown and clear, strong eyes. He would not say anything about the crime- they had passed that a long time ago. Instead, he would say. "I am here now. You can tell me what's going on."

I am here. Is there anything wrong? That was what he always said.

He chuckled bitterly and headed out, looking at worn out buildings and a grey sky. The first of the Italian Kokuyo bases located itself beneath a ruined site not far from the Vongola headquarters. He didn't look at the building and turned the other way.

"Hic…"

Mukuro swerved around, pulling out a trident.

"Kufufu… Come out. I know you're there." He grinned, despite feeling very on edge. Had someone seen the base? He must kill them. Law of survival.

There was a rustle and something small rolled out. He widened his eyes.

"Hiccup."

The child looked at him curiously and then giggled, before hiccupping again.

"You..." He started.

How in the world did that boy,a mere child navigate through his extensive and complicated illusions to this hidden base? Not to mention, he did not trigger a single warning trap. The only ones that were able to find their ways without bodily harm were only Chrome, Fran and the Vongola Decimo.

Maybe Reborn, but he still had to first force his way through an artillery fest of real illusions.

Mukuro paused in his thoughts for a moment, red and blue orbs focused on the boy for a moment.

"Tsunayoshi." He said at last, and the boy with brown hair and caramel eyes laughed.

His laughter was as warm as Tsunayoshi's.

Mukuro's hands trembled a little. There…was warmth like fire blooming in and across his chest. And the boy came to him and grabbed his leg.

Why...are you here?

"I must have grown so soft to believe in fantasies like this. My past self will certainly mock me." Mukuro mused solemnly, as he picked the child up whilst repeating his name. It'd feel better this way though.

"Tsunayoshi."

"Tsunayoshi."

"Tsunayoshi."

Each time the child laughed in reply.

The heart no longer forlorn, the mist cleared to reveal the sky.

* * *

"So apparently Tsuna went to look for you." Reborn nodded and raised his eyebrow at the child sitting comfortably (too comfortably in some of the Guardians' opinion) in the arms of the Mist.

"The creep of all people." Gokudera muttered sullenly, glaring at the man. Part of him did not want to admit some form of jealously.

Mukuro laughed as he always did, it's his trademark. "Kufufufu… Well I happened to be quite desirable."

Suddenly, there was a loud growl from his side and everyone blinked in shock, other than Reborn, of course.

"Wasn't me." Mukuro narrowed his eyes in annoyance as everyone turned to his direction and spat the words with such venom to emphasise the fact.

Tsuna then chose this moment to chew on Mukuro's suit, or his tie more specifically.

It was after a minute of silence- a minute to make sure that Mukuro wasn't going to spear the boy or anyone else, before Lambo decided to speak up.

"Uh… to the kitchen… I guess?"


	5. Food

**First of all, thank you everyone here for being so patient with me on this story. I have been through quite a rough few months lately, mainly health, plus schoolwork and Voltron lately. But here you all go, an update! I promise I'll finish this by the end of this year. Thank you all for the support! Warning: There may some graphic depictions of gore...(?) that you all may feel uncomfortable by so beware!**

* * *

"Say, what do babies eat? Or in this case, Tsuna-Nii." The Lightning asked once more when they entered the kitchen, or sighed since he thought he would never actually get proper answers from them.

"Baby food!" Yamamoto chirped.

"Baby food to the extreme!" Ryohei yelled. Apparently somehow his previous loud habit had manifested itself once more.

"…Baby food?" Chrome whispered.

"Carrots and broccoli porridge." Gokudera firmly said.

"Meat." Hibari insisted.

"Pineapples." Mukuro concluded.

Gokudera was not happy about the food choices, especially with the suggestion of the last two Guardians. According to him, they even could look smug when giving such hideous opinions. Soon, a three-way argument started between him, Hibari and Mukuro. Hibari somewhere with the reasoning of "carnivores only eat meat" and Mukuro along the lines of "Don't you dare question me".

Lambo also was not certain that these were the best food choices for a toddler- he sometimes wondered what really went on in their heads- and he turned around to seek Reborn for consultation (oh, the irony), because really, they were not going to agree on anything soon.

Only to glance at him sipping coffee watching Tsuna wearing his fedora and playing with Leon.

Well… that was new.

It was then, sensing as if someone had been watching him, the hitman abruptly turned to the group with Lambo praying that he swerved his head away in time. Reborn eyed him a little suspiciously, before 'happily' taking out a gun from his suit (since he had that damning prince-charming smile gracing his features) and nearly shot everyone in the face. The point got across. Everyone became quiet, still the tension intensely brewed between some of them.

"Mah. Mah. If we cannot decide, how about we all prepare a dish and see what Tsuna likes best?" Yamamoto broke the silence after a while. He had said that seemingly as if with clueless cheer, yet his eyes held a hint of competition.

"Fine by me, baseball freak. As if you can make a proper dish, much one less to please Jyuudaime." Gokudera snapped and muttered on about making the best foods for his Jyuudaime with a long list of reference recipe books and internet conjured recipes.

"Is it a competition I sense? Well, I have seen Kyoko cook before." Ryohei said excitedly, sensing the deadly auras rising. He then quickly bolted out of the doors to "fetch ingredients".

Hibari did not say anything and proceeded to hop out of the window, presumably to hunt for some unfortunate animal prowling around the Vongola mansion.

Mukuro whipped out his phone and seemingly phoned one of his lackeys about pineapples. Chrome looked at him a little sceptical, her eyebrows set in permanent frown before she headed to some corner of the kitchen and pulling out a knife.

Lambo thought that he would try conjuring his recipes he had seen on Facebook (the one minute easy cook videos, you know?). It was quite out of character for him to do so. He was very well known to be quite a lazy bone. Yet something fuelled within him, telling him that he should go along with this. A competition he should not back down.

* * *

Reborn snorted at them after two hours after finally managing to round them up to prevent anymore collateral damage bill added on to the Vongola's tabs (he thought that a salary cut would be inevitable if this went on, Nono was not all that tolerant after Tsuna's supposed death) and not that he would mention it, Tsuna's looking as if he was going to cry due to hunger. Plus, he didn't want Leon ending up as gecko lunch for the toddler. Not that Tsuna would actually eat it, but the amount of drool pool staining the couch was rather concerning.

He gave another condescending eye at the concoctions that laid on the counter top. If food could feel, the hitman thought in silence, they would have died out of embarrassment for daring to prostrate themselves as food…

"…Or as an existence." Reborn muttered aloud. The term 'Food' to describe them was quite a far-fetched theory now.

The black pot(?) of black goo belonged to Gokudera, who was looking extremely despondent in the far corner. Reborn tilted the edges of the once-pot with his gun as the others tried not to visually gag at the scene, the rim of the pot seemed to have melted with a strange brownish crust lathering its outside. The black goo inside seemed to bubble unnaturally, making some sort of gurgling noise as it did.

Poison cooking. Reborn finally concluded. Must had been due to the blood.

"You do not use dynamites, explosives or storm flames in any matter for which ever part of cooking- you know that much, do you?" Lambo sniggered. He wasn't going to waste his opportunity on getting back at Gokudera-shi. Meanwhile Gokudera was apologising to Tsuna who although baffled, tried to comfort him.

"Damn you, stupid cow. It is not as if your porridge got a Michelin star. In fact, do you even call that porridge?" Gokudera then retorted.

Lambo flushed greatly as everyone's gaze trailed to his food. The teen actually got the part of blending up and mashing up the food right. However, he had dumped all the ingredients into the machine. Hence, it turned up a tangy green puree (or puke as termed by Gokudera) more than baby porridge. Though more importantly, the meat had been of questionable origin.

The refrigerator. Reborn eyed it warily for a spilt second.

"I just took it from the refrigerator." Lambo tried to seemingly shrug. The thing about Vongola was that, unless refrigerated food was taken from the kitchen of Vongola's HQ, it was best not to touch anything around the branch mansions. After all, the cases of 'experimental flesh' gone missing and 'death by food poisoning' were visibly directly proportional.

Hibari had grown impatient from waiting and quickly thrusted his kill in front of Tsuna, who made a small squeak and dived in between Reborn's legs.

"Eat." He growled, stormy eyes glaring hard.

"Are you crazy?" Gokudera gaped. "It's… It's a fucking wild boar and you didn't even bother to cut it up! And where and how did you find this creature here anyway?"

An enormous dead creature laid on the carpets of the mansion, staining it with red and guts. Hibari really hadn't bothered to do the intricate work and just presented it whole as when he had killed it.

"Kufufufu... Such an animal, aren't you, skylark?" Mukuro chuckled.

"I will bite you to death, pineapple." Hibari gripped hard on his tonfas, which somehow appeared in his hands.

"Oh yes, before that." Mukuro produced a dancing pineapple. "I think it may be slightly tempered by Fran and Verde but I can assure you, it is quite deli-"

Hibari wasted no second in sending the thing out of the window, its 'legs' kicking in the air as it flew. Before a fight ensued, Reborn reloaded his gun (loud enough for all to year) before turning to Ryohei. "Next."

"Haha, I followed Kyoko's instructions!" The Sun was rather pumped and quickly revealed his dish in which Reborn with great reflexes, suddenly pulled Tsuna away and wrapped the toddler up with his coat.

"The hell is that shit?" Gokudera quickly cupped his mouth and nose in horror.

"Probably another variant of poison cooking, except much, much more horrible." Lambo whispered as he turned away, gagging.

"The 666 hell dishes of torture." Chrome mumbled, her eyes dark whereas Mukuro opted to keep his eyes shut.

"You sure you hadn't worked with the scientists of the Estraneo Famiglia?" He then chuckled while holding his breath.

"Haha… Maybe we should pass this to the 'information extraction' part of Vongola's security force?" Yamamoto bitterly managed a smile. He didn't try to cover his face or anything, but he somehow shifted to the furthest corner of the room.

Hibari again, finally knocked it out of the window, claiming that "herbivore vulgar shit" should stay away from him.

Yamamoto's was actually the most decent of the lot they had seen so far. It must had been due to his father being a sushi chef. Still, Reborn looked at him with a sort of non-describable gaze. In which, the clueless man scratched his head in confusion. "Is there something wrong?"

"It's raw, Yamamoto." He stated blandly.

"That's how Sashimi is prepared!" Yamamoto grinned.

"Baby food is not Sashimi, you idiota!" Gokudera was quick to retort.

"Oh." Yamamoto seemed to have come to a revelation and new learning. Reborn trailed his eyes once last time back to the plate. Not that Sashimi was any problem, but the Rain had casually propped the neatly slices of fish meat against its organs. The heart was still beating and he could see the fish's eye rolling about on its decapitated head.

Tsuna ogled at the dish and Reborn didn't know if the child was either too scared or too fascinated. Though he could at least agree that the Rain's cutting skill was not at all subpar to Squalo's.

Finally, Chrome exited the room and brought out a plate of Onigiri. Tsuna giggled and poked it. Somehow the lot had expected some form of strange paranormal movement, but only a little clump of the rice fell.

"It's normal." Lambo commented offhandedly, before Tsuna took the nicest looking ball of rice and started eating it. Reborn mused silently, it seemed that Dame-Tsuna still had hyper intuition to tell him whatever food was edible or not.

"Deli… Deli…" Tsuna cooed excitedly in front of Chrome as he ate the riceball in small nibbles. Chrome smiled as she hugged the small boy, recalling a vision of how the Decimo would sometimes come to her for onigiri as a break time snack, ever since they were fourteen.

"Tha…T'anks… 'ou!" He said as he ate, his cheeks puffed up, caramel eyes glistening.

"T'anks… 'ou! Chrome! Tis're deli-cous!" Tsuna back then would say it the same way, his mouth full and cheeks puffed. Then, someone or another in the room would chide him to not talk with his mouth full. Chrome knew the dish she best knew was not all that good. They were often too salty, her other friends would sometimes say. Yet, only Tsuna would eat it so heartily like it was the best dish he ever had.

Only Sawada Tsunayoshi.

"Bossu." She smiled, she was determined to believe that this was Sawada Tsunayoshi anyway. She just needed an extra push to believe that it was him. After all, the same child had warmed up Mukuro-sama's heart. The second Mist never intended to doubt Reborn anyway.

She felt her nose really hot and her vision blurring. Yet, it was so much better that the blackness that clouded her eyes back then. At last, she thought, she finally saw her sky again.

It felt so much better.

* * *

 **Notes:**

 **Yes, poison cooking runs in the blood haha.**

 **Hibari enjoys Japanese food, but he thinks meat can make a child grow much faster.**

 **It is too dangerous for the reader to imagine what Ryohei actually made, hence it was portrayed in a series of reactions.**

 **Makes me wonder what they all eat when they were kids.**


	6. Bath

**Whoo! Another update. It was possible since it is the school holidays now haha! Before addressing this chapter, I want to thank you all so, so much for the overwhelming response to this fic! I was so surprised (Tears dramatically). As promised, I will try to update faster and finish this fic (although I don't want to finish it so quickly either since I adore baby Tsuna!)**

* * *

Naturally after a meal was a bath, at the insistence of one very infamous hitman. Reborn was no clean freak, but Tsuna had yet to shower since his abrupt arrival into Italy. The toddler did not stink (rather he strangely still smelt of baby shampoo) but hygiene had to be taken in account properly, especially if it were to regard civilian bred kids.

And Tsuna was civilian bred.

Though Reborn never said he was going to entirely nanny the boy. Grabbing a dusty pail from somewhere in the mansion (most likely the greenhouse), he dumped it with water and bath salts before casually plopping the toddler in. Tsuna watched curiously as the man ransacked the cupboards.

"Now Dame-Tsuna, don't drown in there while I answer some very important phone calls." Reborn said before tossing a something which he pulled out from the cabinets into the water. "Here's a sponge to scrub yourself."

Tsuna cooed in reply despite not understanding a word.

He then begrudgingly picked up his mobile device. It had been ringing frequently after lunch and majority of the numbers had been from HQ. "That son-of-a-bitch Verde must had ran his mouth on Colonello or Lal Mirch." He grumbled as he hit the dial button.

Chrome and Gokudera somehow found their way into the toilet while Reborn remained busy in the other room.

"Jyuudaime." Gokudera smiled as he squished a rubber ducky and Tsuna laughed excitedly. "I brought some toys."

"Bossu. I'll wash your hair." Chrome quickly settled behind the child who was between fondling with his new toy and presenting it to Gokudera. The man kneeled patiently, exchanging smiles to the toddler, his fingers brushing occasionally over the small wet palms whenever Tsuna offered him the duck.

Tsuna seemed to enjoy getting his hair scrubbed, evident by the little mews he made when Chrome massaged his scalp. He often leaned back to express his delight which caused his hair to get soap on Chrome's blazer or the waters which spilled out to wet Gokudera's pants. Reborn never came to into the bathroom, just standing outside with his usual smirk, tossing the device into the air occasionally.

He would give them another ten minutes before barging in.

* * *

"Yamamoto, why are you swinging your sword outside like this?" Ryohei approached the individual who stood by himself in the garden who quickly swerved around with a wide grin plastered on his face.

There was a short silence as Ryohei looked at him with seriousness.

"You know…" Ember eyes stared at the other for a moment and Ryohei shuddered a little under that intense glare. "What do you think about 'Tsuna'?"

"Hm, I'm definitely glad he is back. Everyone's starting to cheer up, don't you think? I am starting to feel happy myself." The boxer waved his fist in the air.

"Well, it'll be great if everyone could feel this way." Yamamoto murmured as he lowered his sword, tracing his scar with his other free hand.

"Huh?"

"I am about done with my daily training, don't want to lose my form anytime soon." He chuckled and Ryohei smiled in reply.

 _"Tsuna?" He turned from the curtains to the man who waved him over._

 _"It's alright, Yamamoto. You can go back and prepare for your next big game. By then, I'll recover enough to be watching at the audiences." His hands trailed over thinner ones, yet they were calloused all the same- standing side by side, facing the same battles._

 _He held his breath for a moment. "Tsuna, it's not right to leave you like this."_

 _"But is it right for you? You have already missed a few years of the Baseball League and weren't there hostile presences in Namimori? Take it as an order to look after your father, we don't want the same things to happen again, do we?"_

 _He was silent._

 _"Besides, it's just a small cold from the seasonal changes. The weather's pretty harsh this year." He looked at him again, caramel eyes into ember. "I'll be fine. Gokudera and Reborn are calling Sharmal in anyway."_

 _"Right." He always knew how to make him feel slightly better. He always could see the real him. He was the only one alone._

 _He ended pitching for an empty spot in the seats that Autumn._

Yamamoto bit his lip. That kid… Those eyes who cannot see him. He was not Tsuna. It was then he felt a small buzz in his pocket.

Gather in the main room now- Reborn

He looked over to Ryohei who met him with the same gaze and nodded. Thoughts like these were best kept away for a while.

* * *

Lambo glumly waited outside the room. Chrome and Gokudera-shi got the upper hand and hogged Tsuna's bathing time. He wanted to join them dammit! Suddenly the door swung open, revealing Reborn with Tsuna in his arm, in which the toddler's hair was sticking out in all sorts of directions.

"There you are stupid cow." Reborn said as if he took a humongous load of effort to look for him. In truth, the hitman probably knew that Lambo was standing outside the door for quite a while now. "Look after him."

He promptly dropped the toddler in his arms, Lambo nearly dropped him in the process- nearly, Reborn could kill with that look. The hitman quickly headed on his way, with Gokudera and Chrome suddenly appearing and stalking behind him.

"Better take good care of Jyuudaime, you twerp. Don't slack and siesta away." Gokudera-shi narrowed his eyes for a spilt second, before muttering something as he headed away.

"I'll leave Bossu in your care, Lambo." Chrome took a swift bow and smiled, before following behind the Storm.

Lambo blinked.

Wait.

Were they leaving him out again?

Why?

Was he not competent enough?

Too young? That stupid lame reason again?

He was lazy, but he was no dumb nut case. Tsuna-nii saw through that and understood. He never left him out, never forced him with studies and never looked at him condescending eyes. Tsuna-Nii… In that moment, the toddler chose to squirm and Lambo temporarily snapped back into reality.

"Vongola." He pressed his head onto the confused child. "You are the only one who really cared about me, right?"

Really why? Why was he the last to know about everything? Even Tsuna's passing? Even I-Pin and Fuuta knew before he did.

Suddenly, he felt the toddler tugging on his horns with a somewhat worried face, brows slightly furrowed and his eyes tearing a little. Lambo thought it was funny and guffawed at the sight. Tsuna remained stunned before rubbing his nose onto his. "Hwappy..! Hwappy…!" He mumbled.

"Thanks, Vongola." Lambo grinned. "Wait. In this case, I would be the Nii-san right?"

The toddler gurgled happily in his arms and burrowing his face into his chest, crumpling up the shirt. Yet Lambo ignored the growing emptiness within. Something was tugging at his heartstrings and he did not know what. He decided to carry the child back into his guest room.

Tsuna was thrilled to be another part of the mansion for once. He fiddled with Lambo's various game consoles as he rolled about on the bed in which the Lightning took a quick snap of a photo using his phone. He cooed happily when the screen flashed and revealed some scenic backdrop of a game, before sitting rigid as if he was preparing to watch a movie. Lambo smiled at that as he casually grabbed a bag of opened chips lying by the side of his chair on a bed stand, chomping down crackers as he observed the curious child.

His eyes then trailed to a certain object in the room.

The ten-year bazooka.

Pause.

He felt a sudden dryness in his throat as the food uncomfortably made his way down his gullet.

With that…everyone could see who they really wanted to see, no? He picked up the object and stood behind the toddler who was still happily clapping at an opening theme of a game.

"Tsuna… Vongola…"

* * *

 **We need drama since this is a Mafia World.**

 **Yamamoto actually has distrust because his bond with Tsuna was quite intimate, I mean it did involve his life, didn't it?!**

 **As to why Lambo addresses Tsuna as 'Vongola' is because he feels that is a more formal and grown up way as compared to 'Tsuna-Nii' which is childlike. Though he still addresses Tsuna as Tsuna-Nii in his heart. He just wants to be acknowledged, poor guy.**


	7. CEDEF

**Uhh... New update and more drama! Thank you all for being so supportive. Why... this was supposed to be a simple, humourous and fluffy fic!**

* * *

"The Varia's coming over." Reborn muttered, the hint of annoyance in his voice did not go unnoticed. There was a momentary silence before Gokudera spoke up. It made sense, he had been Tsuna's right hand man for a good reason.

"Why?" Though the question came out more like a growl than an inquiry.

"I don't know." Reborn replied somewhat nonchalant as he pulled his fedora. "Why do you think so?"

Immediately, Mukuro clicked his tongue as Ryohei and Yamamoto made a face. Chrome looked worried, her eyebrows knitted closely. Hibari seemed indifferent, but his eyes reflected anger and irritation.

"When are they coming?" Mukuro asked with a homicidal grin, trident in hand- it somehow manifested from the walls. Hibari snorted and Reborn could see he already had his tonfas out.

"A day, maybe two." Reborn shrugged as he turned to look at the window. There was a shuffling of feet and the hitman heard the doors slamming shut. Only Gokudera, Ryohei and Chrome remained. Reborn raised an eyebrow, he had not expected Yamamoto to disappear as well.

"I'll be going too." Ryohei nodded in all seriousness and patted Gokudera on the shoulder before heading out.

"Reborn, before I leave too. How did Varia know about Jyuudaime?" The man then turned to him with a frown.

Knowing that everyone could hear one another using the communicators, Reborn just simply shrugged his shoulders. "Well, beats me." He sighed as he leaned against the desk. "Shouldn't you be going? They are coming by plane."

The Storm narrowed his eyes for a second or two before exiting the room with Chrome. "You go and join the others first. I'll tell that stupid cow about our current situation."

* * *

Pink smoke enveloped the room.

He had done it.

He had done it. Possibly the worst decision of his life and he gave himself the go ahead.

The ten-year bazooka fell onto the ground with a loud thud as Lambo stared at the scene before him with hallowed eyes. Tsuna-Nii said to never tamper around with life using the ten-year bazooka. He just did it and on said person.

No one could blame him from wanting to see his big brother again, right? The guilt built within. It was heavy.

He waited for a moment, before he heard a childlike sneeze.

Toddler Tsuna was still sitting on the bed. He giggled and waved his hands at dissipating smoke. Lambo blinked in shock. There were only two cases regarding the ten-year bazooka. One, the person future self in ten years would appear. Two, the person would not appear at all- which meant they had died within that particular time frame. However, toddler Tsuna here was not conformed to both cases.

Lambo knew the device wasn't broken. It was just tempered by Giannini about two weeks ago when he tested it with an experimented guard tiger cub rescued from a rival familgia which was quite weak. Vongola staff didn't know whether to keep the runt or put it out of its misery, hence Giannini suggested to look into its future with the bazooka. It became a full fledge ferocious monster in an instant for around five minutes before disappearing with a big poof.

The Lightening stared at the child who returned his gaze. Tsuna then cocked his head to the side as he looked on curiously.

"Tsuna-Nii…" He then heard stomping footsteps outside his door and he rushed to hide the bazooka in the cupboard.

"Oi stupid cow!" The doors flung open to reveal Gokudera.

"What?" Lambo replied with his usual lazy demeanour, obviously with much pretence to try and not rouse suspicion from the older man. "Vongola here is more comfortable with me than ever." He pointed at the child who now rolled across the soft mattress, before sitting up and addressing Gokudera with a lisp.

"Gokudwera." He laughed. The Storm smiled momentarily, before turning to Lambo again. "The Varia's coming. I am leaving him in your hands."

"Why?" Lambo spluttered.

"I wished I knew either." Gokudera muttered darkly. "I don't blame Reborn for keeping a lot of secrets from us but… at times like this, I really don't know why Jyuudaime leans on him so wholeheartedly- a little too much for comfort I must add."

Lambo felt a semblance of a connection with the older man for once. "Agreed." He said. "But the Vongola's wishes would be adhered to, right?"

"Yes, if Jyuudaime trusts Reborn, then I will do too." He looked at the child with a forlorn gaze before lifting his hands to his ear. "I have to go fight those bastards now." Gokudera then grumbled beneath his breath.

Ah again, Lambo thought solemnly. I am left out.

"Fwight?" Tsuna piped up.

"Yes." Gokudera came over to squat in front of him. "Don't worry, this fight is to protect you."

"Ish it schwary?"

"No." The man smiled gently. Lambo saw, that gentle smile which was only reserved for his Jyuudaime and his Jyuudaime alone. Even when Gokudera-shi had a girlfriend, he never showed her that kind of facial expressions.

Tsuna then turned to Lambo, eyes wide as saucers. "You… fwight too?"

Lambo looked at Tsuna, stunned momentarily, not expecting that he would be looped into it. "Y-Yes, me too." He stuttered.

"Sho- Strong!" The child giggled and waved his hands excitedly. Tsuna hadn't caught the gist of him being in danger obviously. He had just thought that they were like superheroes. "Like shuperman!" He cooed.

"Right, anyway-"

There was a loud explosion interrupting Gokudera. The communicator flickered in his ears with Reborn grumbling, sounding more annoyed than ever. "I might be wrong on 'just Varia'."

Gokudera turned to see Basil standing near the bed frame of Lambo's room.

"Seems like CEDEF is joining in too. Be careful." There was a buzzing before the line went dead.

"Who is that child?" Basil inquired, his eyes trailing to a surprised Tsuna on the bed. No, he demanded an answer. Ever since Tsuna got ill, Basil had gotten firmer. After all, that was how CEDEF got negotiations done, even without the Vongola to exert pressure.

"None of your business." Gokudera growled menacingly.

"Lal said I should have known if the mission was issued by Reborn-san, but I always believed he was a great man to be respected." Basil closed his eyes as he exhaled deeply. "That was no question, Storm Guardian. Keeping away news of Vongola Decimo's child could be listed under the act of treason in the Vongola."

Tsuna looked on confused and tried to huddle into Gokudera's chest, now that the man had pulled him off from the bed, Vongola Storm ring aglow with red flames. "Basil, there is no need to say and no need for you to know. It be better you would just leave in fact." He gritted his teeth.

"First, you shun me being depressed and now, you refuse to hear me out. Wherefore thou art so stubborn, Storm? It would be better for you to face me than Xanxus. That man has no reason now upon hearing this news." Basil pulled out his weapon with a loud sigh, Metal edge, before activating blue flames- Hyper Dying Will Mode.

Gokudera clicked his tongue, before a wave of Storm flames enveloped him. "It is not that I don't trust you, Basil. Then what after you find Jyuudai- this child? Train him again? Train him again so that he would become sick and die again?"

Lambo could hear the elder man's shaking as he spoke. It was true. He hadn't thought much about why Reborn only presented Tsuna to them and not Vongola.

 _"Do you serve me because I am Sawada Tsunayoshi or because I am Vongola Decimo?"_

He felt something being thrusted into his arms and saw Tsuna leaning on him. Gokudera somehow had sistema CIA on guard from another strong wave of blue flames. Uri was clashing with Alphin. "Storm, I do not understand you."

"Go, take him somewhere safe." Gokudera whispered. "I'll settle this guy and find you guys later."

Lambo nodded dumbly as he brought Tsuna out of the room, down the corridor. CEDEF guards turned up at the hallway, but with a snap of his fingers, Gyudon manifested and charged them down.

Suddenly, he felt Tsuna squirming out from his grasp.

"Vongola!" He yelped, nearly dropping the child.

"Gokudwera!" Tsuna softly protested. The boy had comprehended the situation somewhat, he kept wriggling out from Lambo's grip, tears in his eyes.

"Look, Gokudera-shi can handle himself." Lambo muttered.

"But Lam-bo stwrong… shafe Gokudwera!" Tsuna whimpered. Lambo looked at the child for a second.

"I am no superhero, Tsuna-Nii. Even when you died, I never knew until everyone does. I never knew that you were suffering so much. I never knew a lot of things because everyone around me thinks I am incompetent! I cannot be a superhero"

He felt two small hands on his face and opened his eyes. He hadn't noticed he had been squeezing them hard and he could feel tears brimming on the edge. "Lambo, shafe Tsuna. Lambo shafe Gokudwera." Tsuna said, patting his cheek. "Lambo shafe Gokudwera…"

Tsuna started tearing up as well.

"Why don't you understand…? I am no superhero, Tsuna-Nii…" Lambo hugged the child closer.

* * *

Gokudera cursed as he felt himself being slammed into a wall and he heard Uri growling in the distance. Back throbbing, he still forced himself to stand up despite that. Basil alone was tough enough. He hadn't counted on Lal Mirch actually joining in fifty seconds after the battle started.

"Don't make this hard for yourself, Hayato." She murmured, shotgun in hand. "I would like to avoid hurting as many of you as possible. Damn Reborn for not saying anything about this."

Lal's centipedes charged up at the Guardian, who was ready to deploy another wave of flame fuelled bombs before lightning flames intercepted them. They twitched with the high voltage of electricity coursing through them and returned quickly back to their owner.

"Stupid cow?" Gokudera gasped. "I thought I asked you to bring Jyuudaime out!" Honestly, he was more prepared to punch the teen than his enemies now.

"I am here, because I thought we are to adhere to the Vongola's wishes." Lambo grinned as Gokudera heard Tsuna's soft coos in the background. The smoke cleared and the Storm Guardian could see the toddler being strapped to the Lightning's bag with what seemed like curtain cloth strips.

"Lambo shafe Gokudwera!" Tsuna raised his hands in glee and Lambo nodded to indicate his point, albeit proudly.

"Still!"

"You looked as if you have some trouble. Aren't you getting old?" Lambo sniggered, a smug look etched across he usual tired-looking (although he was no means always tired) features.

"Shut up!" Gokudera grumbled, the tip of his ears red.

Lal had noticed the presence of the child behind the teen's back and resisted shooting a few blows in the moment, pulling her gun away. "Is that…?"

"Yes, as the records say. I believe it is Sawada-dono's child."

* * *

"Verde, you asshat."

"How vulgar can you be now, Reborn."

The hitman casually stepped over the mounting bodies in the room as he shot (non-fatal) another approaching CEDEF guard.

"Did I not say the results to stay under complete secrecy?" He said, trying to keep his voice as calm as possible. "I think I might have a strong desire to thrash your labs."

"Reborn, I think you have truly gone senile. I have said to no one about this." Verde sounded impatient on the other end. "And why would I tell anyone about sampling the Vongola's hair? It's incredulously dumb to brag about that."

Reborn bit his lip. True that, Verde had known nothing about this situation.

The scientist continued. "Are you hiding something from me, Reborn?"

"I won't be hiding something from you, if you weren't hiding something from me in the first place." Reborn stated as he sent his hand to another CEDEF's member face. "Now fuck off- not you, Verde, you are my very good friend- I was talking about a rat."

"Ha-ha, _very_ funny Reborn."

Before Verde could say anything else, Reborn ended the call. _"Then why are CEDEF and Varia on my tail now_?" He narrowed his eyes.

Was there… a rat?

Suddenly, he felt a shadow behind him and he turned around swiftly.

"Hey kora."

* * *

 **Basil speaks normally now, he switches to his medieval dialect when he's responding with very strong emotions.**

 **Lal's part of CEDEF that's why she's here. Colonello tags along 'cause they're a married couple.**


	8. Rain

**Sorry for the late update, but I am really aiming to finish this story by the year's end. It's a buildup chapter and you all get to see Yamamoto's thoughts on the matter. I kind of made up his life story a bit.**

* * *

They say that the kindest people don't live the longest, that god takes them away long before their time. They say it's a sort of mercy act. That those kind people don't have to live among these atrocious monstrosities, a den of amoral savages, and all the shit this world offers.

It's a damn mercy act, they all say.

Well, god is wrong.

That was because he'd just taken an angel back. And god isn't supposed to take angels back. He's supposed to send them, right?

Didn't he send many of them? Like seraphs and cherubim? And there's also Mike? Gabrielle? Gabriel? Yamamoto wasn't well verse with the western religion. Actually, there's nothing pious about him in the first place. He knew nothing about the Eastern scriptures either- Buddhism, they call it.

It's kind of a travesty, with his occupation. Or fate, if he should call it. He's killed before. What, he couldn't possibly be reciting the Ava Maria and "thou shall not kill" over the dead bags of flesh.

Why did Tsuna have to die?

He had been really confused for a while now. Yamamoto Takeshi was very tired. Mentally, physically, emotionally all drained; he felt he was just dragging his sword on this forsaken earth.

"It is the law of the sword that we follow our master and die for him." His old man had once said. "This is a form of honour."

But what if the enemy was something he cannot even cut down in the first place?

And with no master, what should he do then?

His old man provided no answers when he returned to Namimori. He had hoped he might get a word of advice but the older man remained tight-lipped and was eventually left to his own wonderings. Then Reborn suddenly called them in, back to Italy and the moment he decided to go was that moment that he would encounter baby "Tsunayoshi".

 _With no master, what made you come back anyway, Takeshi?_

He thought he heard his father's voice echoing in his head, but he barely could make out the words.

His thoughts shift violently, like the waves in a storm. It's the same Tsuna. Everyone slowly accepted that illogical fact. Yet shameful and reluctant to admit and where he was also the one to accept the most absurd of things first; this time Yamamoto refused to believe the boy was Tsuna.

Even the stubborn Mist had accepted the child.

He paused. He was in the woods, a good distance away from the mansion. Amber eyes gazing at direction where it was located. Was he supposed to go after some Varia thugs as a distraction? Or was it CEDEF? He heard something about them from the earpiece. The orders were muffled in his head.

He was really tired.

He was not going to believe, never going to accept. Not because of the absurdity of the tale, Reborn would never lie over things like this- probably he would; Yamamoto never liked that side about the Hitman anyway, as good terms as they all seemed to be in- but.

But this Tsuna would remember nothing about the time he tried to throw himself of the building.

If he told someone, most would think it was exaggerated tale. A broken arm! It's just a damn broken arm! It's gonna heal someday.

Why would you kill yourself over a broken arm?

Yamamoto Takeshi wasn't stupid. No one was dying just for a broken arm.

What if you failed at the only thing you were good at? He had been failing at baseball and he didn't even fucking know why. When he had consulted Tsuna for help, it had been to salvage his sorry pride. Instead of going to the baseball coach, why went to the most unpopular and weakest kid in class? Perhaps, he thought then, seeing the kid might let him feel better about something.

He did feel better, but it wasn't because of looking at someone more pathetic.

Because only Tsuna saw past that, past all that crooked smiles and false bravado. Tsuna saw the child that couldn't be what he wanted to be. The child that could never live the expectations that was set on him.

Looking back, he might have been the pathetic one all along.

"Did mother leave because I didn't score well? Did mother leave because I broke her cup? Did mother leave because I didn't draw well for art class?"

"Mother loves baseball." One day, his father told him in a soft voice that sounded far too small and weak to be his father's.

Still he ended up loving baseball, never knowing it was psychologically induced or what. He created an image of something he never was- a baseball lover, a baseball pro, a baseball champion. Because all he was good at was baseball, nevermind mother never coming to watch. Silently bearing it all, he never thought that he was already forced to the edge. So much so that just a thin crack in his perfect mask would sent him reeling over.

Tsuna saved him from the brink.

He heard a rustling from the bushes and barely evaded the two men that lounged at him. Yamamoto nearly sent his blade to their necks, but resisted and knocked them with the back of his sword.

Hilarious. He could not even sort out whether he was angry or tired. He knew his sword was wavering. It wasn't surprising. It was a sword without a master after all. It was a sword that couldn't protect.

He had only been on missions alone with Tsuna twice. The first mission, they were in a pinch after being duped by a rival group. He was a little careless then, forgot about that Mist-flame assassin in the fight, only to get a heavy gash face down to his chest.

"Sorry. I should have been able to fend them off." He mumbled, words nigh inaudible, face bleeding from a cut too deep. It would scar even with sun flames. But that's not the matter now. He was the rain Guardian, Tsuna's other hand and yet-

"Let's do this together, Yamamoto."

He recalled Tsuna's smile. There was no blame, neither it was ignorant kindness to pull him back from the frontlines. Tsuna still trusted him to fight. It was this kind of confident yet gentle smile the Vongola gave him that he loved most.

But Tsuna wasn't smiling before he died.

That kid "Tsuna" was always smiling…

"VOOOII!" A familiar cry.

There was a rush of wind and a wave of pressure. He knew he had been spotted. Well, he wasn't trying to hide anyway.

Yamamoto didn't need to lift his head to know. The Varia had arrived.

* * *

Lambo didn't think Lal was that strong. Well of course, she would be strong- being an Acrobeleno candidate and all that. But he really didn't think she, being a smaller lady than Bianchi (and he's nearly Bianchi's height), had the muscle strength to fling him out of the mansion.

 _She was Colonello's instructor, you know?_ Something reasoned in his head. And that guy's a complete beast.

Right.

Somehow, Lal had managed to avoid Tsuna in her whole Jiu-jutsu body flipping act. She wanted to snatch the toddler away, but Lambo swerved in time to avoid her grip (which was quite the stunt since he was in mid-air).

Yes, he was falling straight into somewhere in the forest with the little Vongola in his arms. He heard choppers and gunshots, explosions and rush of rain flames, in the midst Gokudera-shi yelling. His mind registered that Varia had arrived.

"Gyu-don!"

Reality snapped at him. Summoning his Lightning Bull, it managed to slow his descent down. Still, it hurt when he landed, his shoulder scrapping against the forest's rough terrain. He quickly looked at Tsuna, who remained (much to his relief) unscathed and just a little dazed.

It was then Lambo felt a forceful impact of angry flames burning his back and sending him a good few feet away from his original landing spot. He'd probably be roasted alive by the intensity of storm flames if not for Gyu-don blocking in time. Tsuna was clutching his shirt. But surprisingly, that boy wasn't crying.

Lambo dared not turn.

He knew the heavy aura all too well. The low growl of Bester echoed ghastly in his ears. The clicking sounds from the teasing of gun triggers, if that guy was even 'teasing' in the first place. The sound of others fighting slowly drained from his mind. Now, it was just silence and _him_.

Lambo shuddered.

That man snarled.

Tsuna hiccupped.

* * *

"Long time no see, Kora!" An all too familiar acquaintance and annoying voice greeted. Reborn lifted his head and despite the light tone of his greeting, saw no cheer in the other's eyes.

"Ah, Colonello." Reborn replied, giving his ever-gentlemanly smile. "How have you been?"

Colonello knew the slight falsetto in his tone and slight sneer reflected in the hitman's eyes all too well. They had been "friends" for nearly half a century.

Reborn narrowed his eyes. He had been separated from Tsuna a little too long for his liking and honestly, he didn't think Colonello would turn up so soon. Two minutes too soon to his liking, and he could do many things in two minutes.

"Let's cut to the chase Colonello." Reborn grinned, pulling out his gun, all too feral.

"You never strike me as an impatient man kora." Colonello waved and slid out a dagger from his belt.

* * *

 **I take attempted suicides as a delicate matter. Yamamoto may seem happy, but I think it's a mask to hide the high expectations of himself and others. To be pushed to the brink of suicide because of baseball shows something about his self-esteem. And really, also why ask Tsuna for help (when they weren't even close) instead of his friends or coach? No one is the most perfect guy. In a way when Tsuna talked him out of it, he created a sort of attachment to him and that Tsuna actually cares for him by also minding his pride.**

 **Sorry for my rant. I just like Yamamoto a lot haha!**

 **There will be more action than angst on the next chapter!**


	9. Fight

**Here's the next part. It wasn't meant to be too intense, but my previous chapters have led up to this so...**

* * *

Lambo didn't think he would die young.

Of course, there was a tendency to die young since he was in the line of mafia whatnot. But at least not this way. He thought he would die a more chivalric and honourable death with the covenant of the brotherhood (whatever the verbal vow was about), not being shot in the head by his fellow comrade. Well, the Varia being a comrade was a far cry, much less the man standing behind him.

But from the tales and the little fragments of blurry memories he could recall, they did help with crazy Byakuran and the even more crazy Bermuda, right? _Right?_ Something screeched in his fuzzy mind.

Tsuna hiccupped once more and Lambo was brought back to the reality. In all honesty, he dared not move. His heart beating so hard he thought it might pop up of his chest.

Run! Run! Run! Instincts tore and screamed at him.

Because only Tsuna-Nii, the Acrobaleno, Byakuran and Enma (perhaps), maybe Hibari could only stop that man. And from the events that just conspired, Lambo was in a good mind to assume that most of them weren't exactly on their side.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi. Now." He growled, demanded, whatever. Either that, the leader of Varia did not sound the least bit human. Maybe, he sounded a bit like Bester's human form. He thought Bester might sound that way in human form.

"Well." Lambo swallowed the something invisible that was clogged in his throat for a while. He sounded weak. Yet if he raised his voice, he might hear it tremble. He really wanted to lie that the child wasn't in his arms. Although his currently crunched position and Tsuna's soft hiccups echoing in the near empty forest wasn't alleviating the situation.

"The Decimo, hand him over now. Trash."

He screamed mentally in protest.

Wait. Something echoed in the last sane part of his mind.

Sawada Tsunayoshi?

It took a few years and few close shaves with death (much to their discomfort) before Xanxus finally acknowledged Sawada Tsunayoshi as Decimo and not call him other degrading names for the matter. Lambo never knew much about the details since he was rarely included in all these 'grey areas', but it involved a lot of financial paper works and dead Mafia families. Tsuna-Nii had refused to disclose them to even Gokudera-shi and Yamamoto. Although, Lambo thought Mukuro might have an inkling of it. Then again, the Mist had always been a little suspicious to him.

Before Tsuna's Nii death, there's always the occasional 'beansprout' or 'shrimp' name-calling. But it had been more of (an according to Tsuna-Nii) a teasing jab.

Anyway, Sawada Tsunayoshi? He thought this secret was only disclosed to them (and it was just today!)

"Wait… how did you know that this is…"

However, before he could complete his sentence, Xanxus released his flames of hell once more. And Lambo was sent reeling into another part of the forest.

* * *

Yamamoto crashed into a nearby boulder. He didn't he would be losing against Squalo that badly. The sword feeling heavy and tumbling out of his hands. Even before the fight, Squalo did note his hallow eyes, the emptiness within them.

"Voi! If you have no soul, why are you holding the damn sword? You're not fucking worthy to even hold the sword then." The vice-leader of Varia had growled. "I don't want to fight you like this, but I've got orders to hack ya down."

Shigure Soen Ryu was a sword technique that was born with the mind, soul and body all in sync.

You cannot half-ass a sword technique as they always say. Why are you fighting then, warrior?

For. What.

It was then something black, green and a rush of orange obscured his vision. He couldn't comprehend whatever happened, but he felt something warm and light landing on his stomach whereas a huge crash occurred right beside him.

"Hic."

He looked down, slightly confused. Caramel brown eyes stared at him.

"Ah Tsuna…" Yamamoto blinked in suprise. Tsuna cooed and tugged on his tie affectionally.

"Mister… Fi…sh! Fwish." He laughed. "I fly!"

Oh, the sashimi. Yamamoto thought dully.

"You flew?" He asked, but it was more out of a reflex to reply, rather than a genuine question. Yamamoto felt his wounds aching more than ever. Soon Squalo would be charging towards his location. Kojiro could only conceal them with a mixture of rain and mist flames for only a little while more.

"Yamamoto-san?" Lambo groaned as he sat up. Dead leaves and small twigs trapped in his curly hair. "Ow… Xanxus really doesn't hold back. Though… I am surprisingly not that hurt?"

Xanxus? The leader of Varia behind them? Squalo was in front. It was the worst possible sandwich set from Varia.

"Lambo fly!" Tsuna then threw his arms out excitedly.

"Was Tsuna always so active when he was a child? Wasn't he more… shy?" Yamamoto said. He didn't even know why he asked that. It was as if he was trying to find an evidence to testify against him.

"Well, Nana had always told me Tsuna-Nii had been a happy child until his dad left." Lambo said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Ah-"

"Anyway!" Lambo interrupted his thoughts. The usually laid back, reserved teenager suddenly burst in exclamation. "Xanxus knows this is Tsuni-Nii."

"What?" Yamamoto had not comprehended him. In fact, he hadn't been comprehending much since Tsuna died.

"He calls him Sawada Tsunayoshi, whereas… whereas Lal said something about Tsuna-Nii's child or something." Lambo quickly rambled. "It feels like there's a misunderstanding somewhere."

In the first place, they shouldn't even know of this child's existence, Yamamoto's mind helpfully offered. Reborn wouldn't just show this kid to Nono right off the bat. He heard a crash in the distance. An explosion on the other side. The toddler looked at him confused, he thought that the boy was probably thinking why Mr Fish wouldn't reply.

He really didn't want to think so much anymore. He was quite tired.

"Lambo, I want you to take Tsuna and run. Kojiro cannot shield us any longer-"

"Again? Run again? Why does every single one of you say that to me? Do I look like the man in charge of running?" He gritted his teeth. Sure, Lambo knew he always looked as if he wasn't half that motivated or that he seemed to bounce away from fights, but those days were really over. It was when he was fifteen, for Pete's sake. He wanted to stand among them as a true Guardian now and he really hated it when they had to put their lives on the line for him (a capable fighter) to do what, to run?

"No, but there's Tsuna." Yamamoto wasn't ready for some innocent kid to get involved in a fight.

"I've got a hunch they wouldn't touch him." Lambo said. "Come on, let's go."

* * *

Mukuro wasn't smiling, his fingers hovering above the keyboard. He had hacked the systems. What the hell had gone on in the Vongola's headquarters since their absence? It was only a week. Chrome gripped the trident tightly, her eyes shifting to him and to the ground, back and forth.

Did that Reborn know about this?

He thought it might be better to flee, although that damn skylark wouldn't head that option so easily.

"Chrome, you have the communicator?" He asked.

"Yes." She whispered softly. Mukuro's face contorted further when he heard the rush of footsteps outside the base. Some asshole must had dispelled the Mist flames barrier. Someone strong… Someone. It was either Fran or Mammon. In the more likely circumstance, it would be Fran accompanied with that murderous psychopath Belphegor, because Mammon wouldn't bother in trivial fights like these… unless the reward was beneficial to them.

The reward was quite the mouth-watering, Mukuro's fingers drummed on the desk.

He hoped the Shimon wouldn't involve themselves in the fight just yet. Especially the Shimon, Enma (the lovely powerful Capo of Shimon) who was visibly one of the most upset regarding Tsunayoshi's passing. If they teamed up with CEDEF and Varia, it would not be a fight they could walk over.

"Tell them." He swallowed. He knew from the core of his bones to every inch of his muscle that something was very, very wrong. "That we are branded traitors of the Vongola Family… involving in the murder of Sawada Tsunayoshi and the kidnapping of his child."

Chrome looked at him incredulously, before reluctantly moving the mouthpiece to her lips. She had wanted to say something, but she bit her lips instead.

Mukuro grunted. After this, he was going to kill that fucker who played some sort Mist flame illusions on the Family. He knew that whoever the scumbag was, they weren't going to go down easy. It would take someone ridiculously strong to cast that kind of illusion to manipulate their minds and senses to this degree. Maybe they had technology, like the Bovino, but even technology cannot accomplish this kind of feat unless if it was from Verde.

Last he heard, Verde was still on their side.

 _CEDEF and Varia were both affected_ … Mukuro narrowed his eyes.

Someone possibly as strong as, no stronger, than Reborn.

* * *

Lambo regretted staying on the battlefield. Even if it had been three minutes of false bravado, I-Pin or Futa might be proud of him. After all, he was facing Xanxus and Squalo. He glumly thought that he must had been some kind of lucky bastard, for he wasn't diced to tiny pieces or turn into a human roast stick yet.

He clutched to the toddler, deciding in the madness that turning tail and running the life out of him with an angry Xanxus in tow was the best option he could have. He thought Yamamoto would be trying to catch up behind, but the deafening explosion, the flashing colours of red and orange wrath flames blinding the sides of his vision, the singe on his skin and the smell of smouldering flames and ashes just forced a single thought of instinct, obscuring all thoughts.

 _Run._

When he felt a bullet tearing through his flesh and it burnt so bad, he couldn't help but trip over the roots. He fell over a ledge, crashing face first onto the undergrowth. His face was numbed and he couldn't whether his spilt lip, bruised cheek or possibly broken nose hurt more. He saw the Varia leader looming over him like death and raising his guns, preparing to shoot.

"Wait! Wait!" He wanted to scream, but the words came out as a pathetic choke instead. He saw the fingers pulling on the trigger and he shut his eyes and flipped his body to shield the little Tsuna. He thought he saw the flames coming, the scorching heat sizzling in its path.

Then, a rush of warm flames.

In his haze, he saw orange and gentleness and a familiar figure. A figure he had wanted to see so much…

"Tsuna-Nii…" He groaned.

 _"Hey Lambo. Thank you, I knew that I could always rely on you."_

That voice… he would tear up if he would, but he had already faded to darkness.


	10. Suspect

**Sorry all, I know I am supposed to finish this by the new year. But I was incredibly busy and didn't have the time to update. I try to update more regularly as I will be starting on other fanfictions soon!**

* * *

There were many things Xanxus simply did not expect in life.

Take for example, that trash dying.

Or rather, it hadn't really occurred to him yet that the trash would die, even when he saw that black box. When his 'dad' told him that the trash was sick, ill and possibly dying, he didn't even bother for a visit. What for? He was certain that the pipsqueak would be alright.

(He blindly took the papers of Basil's hand- papers that the Decimo usually signed. He wasn't thinking about it all right.)

He wondered why everything hadn't clicked in his head then. When he saw him last Christmas, he was as thin as a stick and his skin disgustingly pale. Not that he said a thing about that. He said nothing, even when everyone was forcing themselves too hard to enjoy the party, all drowning in fake laughters and cheering in prim falsettos.

(Strange, because in the top things he hated, one of them happened to be 'fake people'.)

It was just like his mother back then, all sinew and bones, her skin a disgusting shade of grey, wrinkled and littered with brown dots. He didn't know much about her disease. All he knew was that she died two weeks later. Sawada Tsunayoshi died three months later, in Spring, nearing summer when the air was dry and nauseating,

(He sat on the furthest pew during the funeral, and had offered no flowers.)

He wondered why these things hadn't registered at the start when he should have known. It angered him to no end.

 _Because somewhere, he really believed that Sawada Tsunayoshi was invincible._ He thought the others might have comprehended the same thing too. They all tended to forget that he was just merely a human. And that all humans eventually die.

It was just a matter of when and how.

His death was a silent matter. The trash just slipped away some point during the night. _Fucking doctors didn't even notice shit apparently._ When heard of the news, he had crushed his favourite glass in his hands. As it broke into pieces, he couldn't feel the cuts, blood or pain on his palm. He was just so angry and the flames which remained dormant for years started to smoulder his soul again.

(Everything was funny really. He's already in his mid-thirties and he felt the need to break something, just like a petulant child.)

Now, it remained smouldering as he stood over an injured Guardian. He didn't really note his flames, but he thought he saw green. Didn't matter anyway. He had chased that one Guardian holding the remnants of Sawada Tsunayoshi.

 _Remnants of Sawada Tsunayoshi..._ It didn't make much sense, but the flames which stroked his soul more than ever, obscured any form of sense. All he could was to smell his black smoke of sins as he chased in blind anger. He raised his gun, thinking to shoot.

And then, a rush of sky flames. It was like an instant cleanse, snapping him out of his rage and madness.

There were many things one never expected in life.

Such as the trash- Sawada Tsunayoshi- supposedly dead (and he had just somewhat accepted his death) standing right in front of him. Not sickly and weak, but strong as he should have always been, aglow with orange flames.

"Tsunayoshi." He rasped. Somehow he felt very tired, too tired to say another word or insult, so he called the lad Tsunayoshi as it was. He couldn't even find the words for a greeting.

Lad didn't say a word, just flashed that usual stupid smile on his stupid face and raised his arm. For a second, Xanxus thought that he might get hit by triple X burner or something of the sort. He was alright with it. It was fine if Tsunayoshi hit him with the flames again. After all, the lad's flames rarely burnt on skin. Only his flames. It always felt better than the ones that were used to seal him in.

He was really alright with it; it would burn all his foolishness and madness away.

So Xanxus closed his eyes, preparing for some sort of attack.

But the flames never came. Rather, they seem to only tickle his nose. When he opened his eyes, only a toddler stood in his place. That thing (because Xanxus was utterly confused and was unable to make heads and tails of his situation right now) hiccupped and pressed his face against his leg. There was a slight consideration in him to kick the child off, but Xanxus held back with a frown.

Little Tsuna giggled when Bester came over and surprisingly prodded the child with their nose. Xanxus tried to not let the shock slip on his face. Bester never showed affection like this to anyone. It was their first, in which leading to the Varia leader also finally realising that for the first time in a while, he actually felt a sense of calmness.

For some reason, he lifted the child up. And Tsuna petted his nose curiously with his big brown eyes, just as he did to Bester earlier. The older man grunted, saw that kid's guardian on the ground and proceeded to lift him up.

* * *

The Rain saw the column of orange flames when he leapt through the forest and some emotion surged within him. Momentarily, an image of Tsuna flashed within his mind, smiling and nodding at him. With flames that powerful and pure, it was undeniably Tsuna's. He also had worked under him long enough to know that.

So he rushed over to where he had seen the flames, not really bothering if Squalo was behind him or whether there was danger ahead. Somehow he felt as if the Varia's vice leader had given up the chase for some reason.

As he ran, it was wet on his face. But it wasn't raining, neither were there any trace of Rain flames. He didn't mind the mild dampness. After all, that torrential downpour within had slowed to a small drizzle.

His cheeks muscles strangely ached. And he realised that he was smiling, smiling ever so brightly.

Then he saw the Varia Leader with the child and Lambo, but both of them made no move to attack. As if he was reading his mind, Xanxus even bothered to tell him that he saw "that ugly trash becoming a kid".

Child Tsuna cooed and laughed, evidently happy to see him.

And Yamamoto Takashi ran over to the child reaching out towards , not minding the Varia Leader. The drizzle stopped and there were clear skies. He was as warmth flowed through him. Why, it was certainly strange how he could feel much better almost immediately.

But right now, he just didn't care.

* * *

"Is it true?" Reborn narrowed his eyes as he swung to the rooftops, narrowly avoiding a bullet coated in blue flames. He held a cellphone.

"Indeed. It is a sort of Mist flame illusion. Though, I suspect that it might have unique properties on the mind."

Reborn hopped a little to his right as Leon morphed into a gun and instantly, the hitman landed a shot through the roof. There were loud cussings and Reborn chuckled. "Do explain."

Chrome cleared her throat on the other end. "Normal Mist Flames only have the ability to affect the senses- But this one… it seems to not only affect the senses but play on emotionally and mentally. Also, it is possible that it can spread from an individual to another."

Reborn paused.

"Are you saying that, if for example I feel angry-"

Mukuro replied solemnly. "Indeed. These flames make you feel angrier. Make you more confused and if there were others within your vicinity, they get affected too. I believe we were all under its influence kufufu."

That easily explained the quarrels, the boiling confusion and anger they all had earlier.

"But how did we snap out of it-" Reborn proceeded to ask, however he quickly held back his tongue. Dark eyes widening with realisation.

Tsunayoshi. His flames. It was when everyone started to calm down. It was then he quickly turned towards the direction of the forest. It had been strangely quieter there for a while now, which was rather surprising, as he was aware of Varia heading in that area.

Varia was never the definition of quiet. They thoroughly enjoyed blowing things up, which was why their financial expenses were always so high.

"Hm?"

"Nothing. I guess you know what to do." Reborn hopped off the mansion, heading full speed towards the forest with Colonello in tow. He would settle the troublesome things there while looking for Tsuna and the others. "I want every person in the Vongola looked up. I'm sure you are aware what kind of operation this is?"

"Don't worry, I've done plenty of that under Tsunayoshi's orders. Most of all, I cannot wait to skin that-"

"Mukuro-sama."

"Excuse me. We will contact soon."

Reborn slid the phone into his pocket and slipped into the shadows of the trees. Even though, things were starting to become clearer, yet more suspicions were also raised in him.

Boots crushing the undershoots of the forest. "Reborn, get your ass out now kora!"

"Hah, no time to spare for a game of hide and seek, Colonello?" He laughed as a bullet grazed passed his cheek. Reborn barely flinched.

"Maybe it would be better if you came out and admit your crimes kora!"

"What crimes?" Reborn raised an eyebrow and did a quick draw. He wasn't even surprised. Mukuro had taken his good time to inform him. Reborn's shot nearly hit the other's boot.

Colonello dared look upset. "Don't play dumb, Reborn. Apparently the Decimo had a child and you and his Guardians took him away. Now, that's a huge crime! You know you can't just take a child of the Vongola off-"

"And how is that a death-worthy, traitorous crime?" Reborn simply mused at the ridiculousness of it all.

"No matter kora! Vongola Nono wants to see him!"

"And that is why we are branded as traitors?" _Was that really Nono asking?_

"You all _killed_ the Vongola Decimo!"

Now that was hilarious.

It was then a thought occurred. Just the usual momentary fleeting thought. It should be like the million of others that phased through the hitman's mind. It comes; it goes and then it disappears. Maybe he would recall it in the near future, but they all held nearly no memory value.

This one stayed, imprinted on heavily, like the rare few that did. Yet it was the heaviest of thoughts, and Reborn thought himself too attached.

Even so it was already too late for regret, because that statement brought on a heavy sense of guilt which he forced to the back of his mind.

Did Dame Tsuna really die to illness?

* * *

 **I apologise. It was supposed to light hearted but it came this way. Hahaha, the fluff will return soon with Varia and CEDEF! That is a promise, so bear with this heavy arc now!**


	11. Catch

**Sorry guys. Once again a late but thank you for all the support I get for this fic! Really thank you all so much. NOW HERE IS THE LITTLE FLUFF.**

* * *

Reborn narrowed his eyes when he dodged a bullet. He wasn't on best terms with the rest of the Acrobaleno and certainly wasn't buddy-buddy with Colonello either, but he was rather certain that the man would never chase after him like a mad dog even if Vongola were to offer him wealth that would shift the global economy.

Because like all strong people, Colonello went through life by his own principles and values. He wouldn't bow down his head to some Mafia don. More importantly, Colonello was a strong man with a brain. Brainless dog-chasing was not how he fought, even when he was a soldier. Also, Colonello respected the strong and Reborn by common knowledge to those working in this field, was ridiculously strong.

Yet that same man was pursuing him through the forest at high speeds.

Feeling rather annoyed, Reborn turned with pistol in hand and released another shot coated with sun flames. Some trees collapsed and when he heard Colonello swearing bloody, he grinned and headed on to his intended destination.

He had side-tracked for way too long.

Reborn briefly thought that he might have to shoot down Xanxus. Repercussions be damned. He had no idea what caused that rush of sky flames, but that baby Tsuna had to be triggered in a manner for that to happen. Take for example, the incident with Hibari earlier and Reborn's smirk died.

He was not feeling too happy.

It was then he saw Yamamoto in the distance, hands in pocket, smiling (genuinely) and eyes bright. It was as if whatever doubts that clouded his vision earlier had passed and the Rain was now back in his top form. The Rain Guardian spotted him and beckoned him to head over.

"All is good, Reborn." He said. "Now we have to go stop the fight between Gokudera and CEDEF. I heard from Lambo that he was alone."

Yamamoto then burst out laughing and Reborn could guess what have happened.

It was then there was loud crash in the distance, in which Yamamoto raised his head wearily. Reborn remained unfazed. "Well, I guess Hibari and Ryouhei are nearing their distances. I better inform them that Varia would not be engaging with us any longer." He then coughed lightly and muttered somewhat spitefully about how Xanxus really couldn't be bothered with this so called trivial details and asked his 'trusted aides' to handle everything instead.

Not too surprisingly, nothing had worked out.

Reborn nodded and just headed to the back, hearing Lambo's frantic screams not far away. Reborn cocked an eyebrow towards Lussuria's Peacock of Serenity whcich was glowing (so it was entirely quite eye-catching) and Lussuria clasping his hands together, lips pursed exaggeratedly. "Oh Lambo-chan! Would you like any more healing flames? I think your sides aren't entirely healed yet. You know how Boss and his flames are quite painful!"

"I am fine! I am very fine!" Lambo was shrieking and Reborn could see why. That _idiota_ guardian, Reborn tried to hold the phrase on his tongue, looked ridiculous with his long shaggy black hair and nails that curled to his arm. Lambo, who wasn't aware of Reborn's presence turned to Lussuria and glared at him. "What have you done to me?"

The Varia's Sun Guardian was undeterred and just pressed a finger to his cheek. "I healed you! Oh yes… There was a side effect regarding my healing abilities…"

"Tell me so earlier!" Lambo screamed.

"How am I to tell that to an unconscious boy!" Lussuria smacked his lips. Lambo then quickly pulled his shirt together and took a few steps back. The other continued, not caring about his unwillingness. "Well, I think you are still not healed enough so just come back and let Kuu treat you better!"

"No!" Lambo yelled as the Peacock starting to trot over.

Reborn slipped away and finally found the person he was looking for. Separated by plantation, on the other side, he saw little Dame-Tsuna and then to his slight surprise, Xanxus. Tsuna held Xanxus' guns and specks of sky flames danced on little palms. The Varia boss laid on a temporary throne, eyes heavily lidded, not seemingly bothered with anything whatsoever. Then the child pressed his face against his shirt, rubbed his cheek on Xanxus' belly and started blowing raspberries onto it. For the first time, Reborn actually saw a smile etched onto the stoic man's face.

(The hitman felt a pang in his chest and wondered what it all was.)

However, that smile faded as quickly it appeared. "Who's there?" Xanxus growled, one fierce eye staring to where Reborn was currently standing.

"Just gentle o' me." He came out, no point hiding. Tsuna saw him and immediately cooed happily, trying to reach his small arms outs. Xanxus then stood up, hands lax with Tsuna clinging on his shirt like a koala and strolled over to the hitman.

"What the fuck is going on?" Xanxus snarled. Reborn thought that he would give credit to the Varia once again. Of all the Mafia Dons he had met, their Boss was nowhere stupid, dense or weak. In fact, he was easily at the pinnacle.

Tsuna had admitted before, that he was only able to beat Xanxus only because he had better control over his sky flames and didn't have a secondary wrath flame to deal with.

"I need to borrow this little chap." He grinned as he pulled Tsuna away into his arms. Tsuna was mumbling his name softly as he curled up near Reborn's breast pocket (probably hoping to find Leon). Xanxus didn't resist, only grimaced slightly. There was silence and the strange rustle of leaves. Reborn knew who had caught up.

"Excuse me." He then said and swung around to avoid a passing bullet for his head. Xanxus dodged equally as fast but rather ungracefully. "As you may see, there is someone undesirable is heading our way."

"Reborn! Stop running away kora!"

Xanxus narrowed his eyes. He was obviously looking for you, hitman, he snorted.

"Indeed. I have stopped." He replied calmly as he fired a few shots with one hand. Colonello avoided them all and came jumping down, army knife in hand and rifle sniper in the other. He immediately turned to Xanxus who looked menacing.

"So the Varia betrays the Vongola." Colonello said, although it was more of a sneer and Reborn didn't like it at all. The shadow of his fedora hid his sharp gaze.

"The Varia are not the Vongola's dogs." Xanxus spat venomously and Reborn could feel the heat rising. "I came to look for the trash Sawada Tsunayoshi and to make sure he ain't dead. And look, you sorry piece of shit, tell my 'dad', he's still alive."

"That's Sawada's kid-" Before Colonello could finish his sentence, Xanxus charged madly towards him, stunning the former Acrobaleno and sending him a good few feet away.

"Oi, take the child away." He barely glanced at Reborn before heading back into the battle. Reborn did not nod but instead he sauntered away with Tsuna distracted by Leon's lack of presence.

"Tsuna. Can you do something for me?" He smiled at the child as he turned his back on them, shielding Tsuna from the fight. "Leon will come out and play if you can release your flames again."

Tsuna cocked his head to the side, big eyes looking straight at him, sad and confused. Mostly because he did not understand Reborn but he really wanted to play with the gecko.

"Alright." He would try again. He usually didn't extend his patience too much and once again, had to remind himself that he was after all dealing with a civilian child.

Reborn then jumped to the branches to avoid a passing grenade. He pulled up his hand and replicated the small sparks of flame Tsuna did earlier. Tsuna obviously did not know what Reborn meant and just merely tried to replicate whatever the hitman was doing. Small sparks started to dance on small palms.

"That's it." Reborn chuckled. He then turned to spare a glance at the fight occurring. "Tsuna, do you know how to play catch?"

Tsuna nodded shyly, but it looked more as if he was bobbing his head.

"Did you see that two men playing over there?" He turned his hip a little so Tsuna could peek through. "Could you catch that naughty man for me? The one that looks like a soldier. You just have to catch him on his back."

It was not the best lie, still Tsuna bought it and he looked at Reborn sweetly. The hitman raised an eyebrow at the strange thought about Dame-Tsuna to be afraid of Chihuahuas and not exploding flaming guns.

Anyway, to more pressing matters ahead… Reborn appeared behind Colonello, in which Xanxus had his eyes wide opened in shock and Reborn would have paid a million bucks to take a photo, but he was too busy trying to defend Tsuna in the event this did not work. His right hand held Leon in his gun form as he thrust Tsuna out.

"Now." He had to confirm this hypothesis.

Immediately, that small spark burst into huge flames. It did not envelope Colonello and lasted for only a spilt second before it died away. It was then Reborn finally noticed it, a faint black wispy mist emerging from the former Acrobaleno and disappearing into the air.

"Eh?" Colonello was a little confused before getting hit by another onslaught of wrath flames and flew away.

"Xhan..!" Tsuna giggled when Colonello was out of the way and Xanxus came into view.

"It's Xanxus, you trash." The man snarled, but Tsuna just kept happily repeating "Xhan-Xhan". Xanxus did not press on the issue and just let the kid let be. The small grin on his face was noticed by Reborn however. Ten seconds later, Tsuna quieted down quickly.

Reborn realised by the kid's slower action and lower eyelids. "He is tired." He explained to Xanxus who eyes reflected a little concern.

"Reboorn!" He then heard Lambo rushing over. Twigs and leaves were trapped in his long black hair and dirt was stuck onto his finger nails. He didn't make a face. Expressionless like Xanxus, he instead moved in the opposite direction where Yamamoto and Ryohei just appeared from the foliage.

"Here." He handed the drowsy Tsuna over to Yamamoto, ignoring Lambo's cries of protest. "I have some unfinished business here so you might want to wrap things up at the mansion."

"I couldn't find Hibari." Yamamoto said.

"Yes." Reborn answered. He really wanted to finish this up quickly. Xanxus just shrugged and walked away as it did not concern him any longer.

"The mansion will be a good place for a nap." Reborn suddenly called out.

Xanxus grunted.

* * *

Somehow the fight between Gokudera and CEDEF ended when Xanxus conveniently crashed into the mansion with Bester. Lussuria grinning behind him. Lambo was half-conscious and foaming by the mouth on the other as Ryohei carried him like a potato sack- a hairy potato sack- because he couldn't move fast enough. Yamamoto wasn't all too far behind, Tsuna nodding off in his arms, with Squalo muttering something indignantly as he followed.

Yamamoto had crossed swords with him earlier and Squalo had nearly lost. But the other didn't mind, at least he finally got his competitor and rival back in action.

"HELLO TO THE EXTREME." Ryohei shouted.

"Hey!" Yamamoto waved.

"Gokuw…" Tsuna mumbled softly and yawned midway.

Lambo: sjcjdnksbcsd

Everyone paused and stared.

* * *

Somewhere Hibari scowled. Tonfas burning in his head, his cloud flames choking the air.

"Chiavarone." He snarled, voice feral.

"Oh, hello Kyouya." A figure stepped out, whip in hand. His voice was calm, but his eyes held a glint of something unfathomable. "Long time no see."

* * *

 **Hello to our new character! Yes, Xanxus didn't even bother to carry Tsuna haha. So Tsuna's like clinging onto him.**

 **Next chapter is sleepy Tsuna!**


	12. Meeting

**I know I promised a sleepy Tsuna, but because I needed to explain some mechanics, I'll just leave this idea for the later chapters. So just think of the child taking a nap. Thanks for all the support that I get on this and for being so patient for the updates!**

* * *

"I will bite you to death!" Hibari growled.

"Still the same as ever, Kyouya!" Dino threw back his head and laughed. Hibari scowled and flung a tonfa, in which Dino moved his neck over slightly and it shot past his head like a raging bullet. It crashed into a tree, in which someone flopped from its foliage to the ground.

Dino whistled, and he turned to focus his gaze once more on the Cloud. "Must have been rough recently eh? What's with all the fanfare?"

"You came too late, Chiavarone." Hibari spat on the ground and kicked the soil.

Dino gaped. "Kyouya. You _texted (not even a call!)_ Kusakabe who relayed the message to me four hours ago and I was like- on the other end of Italy! I took the fastest plane! I even threatened the pilot! Well technically, it was Romario, but yes, Kyouya. I tried my best. You said it was urgent."

"Reborn."

"Okay. Reborn said it was urgent. Where's Reborn?" Dino swerved his head around, only to be faced with obsidian eyes.

"Indeed. My former still useless student." The hitman grinned.

It was rather a pity to mention, but even after over three decades of age and holding the proud title of 'Bucking Horse', Dino still screamed like a little girl. Hibari dared look amused, that bastard. Dino grumbled as he regained his composure. It was then he noticed Reborn dragging a body clothed in military garb…

Wasn't that the Rain Acrobaleno or something? What was his name again? Colo…?

"I'm no ghost." Reborn said. He then shook the body. "Neither is this one."

"Yes. I am just not used to this appearance!" Dino retorted, cried.

"I've been in this form for over more than eight years and you used to see me on average 5 times a year."

"Alright. What's going on anyway?" Dino decided not argue on his losing case further. He casted a wary eye onto the fallen body earlier and with all seriousness said. "Isn't that a CEDEF member? And I just received a report or rumours that you were branded the Juudaime-" He didn't dare say his name, hadn't said a long time since his death. "-murderers."

Reborn's facial expressions now remained neutral. The hitman didn't as much even lift his lip. No smile nor frown and frankly, it was rather unnerving.

Surprisingly, it was Kyouya who spoke first with much diplomacy. "About that. There's some assistance we require of the Chiavorone."

Dino nodded. Kyouya usually wasn't like that.

It was then another voice piped up in the momentarily silence. "And before anything else, will you stop dragging me by the boot or collar kora!"

* * *

"How dare the Varia betray us!" Lal yelled.

"This is… This is rather unbecoming of the CEDEF…" Lussuria pursed his lips, tapping his finger against them. He looked slightly stunned by her sudden outburst but still remained composed otherwise.

"You think so too huh?" Gokudera spun around. He was hurt, indeed, but not as badly as one would think coming from a fight with a former Acrobaleno and a skilled CEDEF member. "Even their attacks are all over the place. Also, I thought Lal Mirch wasn't even involved with CEDEF anymore!"

"Certainly. This whole thing is odd after all." Yamamoto frowned as he stepped forward, hand on sword. "Let me lend you a hand."

Gokudera chuckled. "Much pleasure. Left-Hand."

Xanxus just narrowed his eyes and turned around, walking the other way down the corridor.

"VOI WHERE are you GOING?" Squalo shouted.

"Boss probably wants to go and rest. It isn't worth his fight." Lussuria shook his head with a loud sigh. "If Bel or Levi were here, it would be nice."

"I don't want anymore additional crazies in the house." Gokudera grimaced when he heard their names while Yamamoto laughed as if recalling fond memories.

"Isn't Gokudera-shi also equally crazy?" Lambo who had regained his composure a while ago, scratched his cheek and wondered quietly.

"NO. Obviously I know that. I AM WONDERING WHERE IS HE GOING WITH THAT VONGOLA KID?" Squalo pointed and flailed his sword at that retreating figure. Even if he was being held like baggage, Tsuna was already falling asleep.

"Jyuudaime!" Gokudera shrieked.

It was then something sharp, fast and dangerous, coated blue flames shot past between Yamamoto's and Gokudera's heads past Squalo and straight to Xanxus, in which the man deflected with his guns almost as quickly. A glimmer of metal and they immediately knew whose blade it belonged to.

"Art thou ignoring us?" Basil snarled. "If thou doth not looketh twice, thou might just lose thy heads!"

"Wha? What was that?" Lambo squeaked as Ryohei blinked before looking serious, steadying himself to attack.

"So, he wasn't even serious at all?" Gokudera mumbled. He had flinched, not because of the attack, but rather much the way Basil spoke. This definitely wasn't really him. After all, the fact (he would carry this to his grave thank you very much!) was that if weren't for Basil's egging on, he probably would still be skulking around all day. The whole meet-up was even partially thanks to him.

"I don't know what is going on. But this time round, let me knock some sense into your head!" Gokudera shouted. _As thanks and also I need to wrap this up quickly because I cannot stand Jyuudaime in the hands of that guy._

The area soon filled up with more CEDEF guards. All healed and ready to go again. Yamamoto and Ryohei steadied themselves as Lambo stood up on shaky feet, thinking that all this couldn't be half as bad as playing tag with Xanxus. Squalo laughed maniacally and Lussuria just smiled like he always did, albeit like a murderer ready to do some murdering.

Xanxus didn't even yell, he just instinctively charged up to one of the strongest, pissed that they dared to even try to touch him.

"If it works, I can send Jirou for supervision. I still have kojiro to fight with me." Yamamoto smiled at Gokudera who still looked anxious.

"Heh, you're always oddly reliable in times like this." Gokudera flashed a tired grin in return.

Meanwhile, Tsuna just snuggled deeper into Bester's fur who just carried the child away down the corridor.

* * *

"Wait what!" Dino exclaimed upon hearing the whole story as Romario posed quietly behind. Colonello looked troubled.

"So they can target us too, kora?"

"You're strong, not invincible." Hibari muttered sullenly. "I still could bite you all to death!"

Colonello snorted. "Still as gutsy as ever kora."

Meanwhile, Dino was wringing his arms madly as he talked to Reborn. "Reborn, you couldn't possibly think that I would attack you, would I?"

"Why. You'd never know, useless Dino." Reborn chuckled as Dino looked as if he was about to pull his hair out. He was somewhat positive that the Chiavorone wouldn't be half as affected as Dino was often uninvolved in the Vongola's affairs. In fact, Dame-Tsuna always made sure that other Families would rarely step in. Furthermore, Vongola was a big organisation. Trying to brainwash every single member out there was not going to be an easy task.

Their invisible enemy had proven capable so far however. He had already taken the initiative of reaching out to Yuni and the others. Yet there was still Enma Cozart, Kingpin of the Underworld. The man was already elusive from the start. Only Tsuna ever seemed to be able to contact him.

Reborn frowned, their methods of communicating had even been secret to the World's Greatest Hitman. In a way, he was proud and in another, it made situations like this complicated. Hopefully, Chrome might be able to dig something out.

Of course, no one would even think this would happen.

"I would never, ever dare to attack my benefactor." He tried to place his hands on Reborn's shoulders, but the hitman just moved away, causing him to stumble over and fall flat on his face.

"You have to get back to the mansion now." Reborn then said without even giving a pity eye. He looked at Colonello who shrugged lazily.

"Okay. I believe that my Lal is getting out of hand. But take this as a rare training event- OW KORA WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" Colonello rubbed his head as he stared accusingly at Reborn, who quickly hid his hand behind his back.

"Stop chattering already. I've heard enough when you got possessed earlier." Reborn smirked as Colonello felt a vein popping on his head. Hibari just grunted and headed in the direction of the mansion, with Colonello spewing profanities as he followed behind.

"Well that we've got them away. First…" Reborn then clapped his hands. "I've already told Hibari, but I would really love to get the Vongola Sky Ring back."

He thought to contact Verde later.

* * *

Tsuna rubbed his eyes sleepily as he sat up from the cushioned couch. Below, laid Bester all curled up. An Akita Inu stood guard near the door. There were noises outside, but Tsuna didn't seem to mind. At first, he dangled his legs above the beast. It seemed big and scary now that it's all laid out before him, but somewhere he knew that Bester wouldn't hurt him.

"Come on, Lal."

"Colonello. I cannot believe you dare betray our marriage!"

"Tie them up for now. They are flame-cancelling ropes."

"I could always rely on you, Romario!"

"He's not coming to his senses no matter how much I punch him!"

"Mah-Mah, I think that's really enough…"

Voices echoed outside, but Tsuna was concentrating on the jump. He did and ended up plopping onto Bester's back. The beast rouse and it moved, causing Tsuna to roll down to the carpet. He stared at it with wide caramel eyes as Bester approached the boy before settling once down once more, feline eyes staring at him. Tsuna then placed his little hands on the sides of Bester's chin (?) as he pressed his face onto its face. He giggled when his nose was rubbed against Bester's moist one.

Bester attempted to lick the boy. For some reason, the child had generated a sense of affection within. It opened its jaws, revealing sharp canines (that might just had been the end of several unfortunate men) in which Tsuna just marvelled and pushed his head into his mouth to see the teeth.

It was then Dino swung open the doors as Jirou barked.

"Tsunaaa!"

It didn't help how Bester felt revulsion towards the male standing in front of it and in order to turn away, closed its jaws (lightly) and lifted Tsuna's entire body as it stood.

"Xanxus! Oh my TRINISETTE, Bester is EATING LITTLE TSUNA! XANXUS!"

"Jyuudaime?!"

"Tsuna!"

Needless to say, chaos soon ensued.

* * *

 **I really love the Bester and Tsuna fluff hahaha. It's a lil' sad but Reborn may not be home for a while haha**


	13. Recap

**I realised I never got to Ryohei's part of the story. For him, it will be slightly different as I think he regards Tsuna as his precious younger brother. Someone he needs to guide and watch grow with his sister.**

* * *

Weeks ago.

"Hello Vongola Decimo. You've grown a lot since I last met you." A stout man appeared in the room, with faint wisps of black stringy flares lingering behind him and he then placed his hat on the coat hanger. Somewhere behind, a taller man stood. "So what calls me to you?"

"How funny, Bermuda. I never really called you. Was the Vindice already not involved in the Mafia Law?" The Decimo chuckled as he looked up from his paperwork for a moment. His skin seemed deathly pale and his smile was thin. "Shall I ask what calls you to me, like how you immediately displayed your true form from the get-go? You are wary. Have no fear however, there is no one undesired yet."

"I guess you picked up a relative good load of nonsense from that hitman- Reborn, was it?" The man moved and proceeded to settle at the coffee table on the left side of the room. On the table, hot tea and chocolate cookies were already nicely prepared. The taller and lankier figure trailed behind him.

"Even I cannot seem to evade the Vongola's intuition. They said you were the strongest in years." The man, to be finally known as Bermuda, took a cup and placed two sugars in, but he did not drink it and just walked over to the bed where the other laid.

"A curse, more than a blessing." The Vongola sighed and looked out of the windows. There was a full moon in sight. An orange cat crawled out from the folds of the blankets, careful to avoid the wires and nuzzled its cheek against his stomach.

"Then you should know, that someone targets the pacifiers and the rings. But he said nothing, that man Kawahira-" Bermuda evidently spat the name venomously as he placed the tea on the bed stand. He quickly recovered his cool and stood, as much of a gentleman he could be.

The Vongola took a sip from the cup. The papers forgotten as he spoke. "Kawahira is no longer overseer or guardian of the Tri-Ni-Set. They are no longer his responsibility."

"I know." Bermuda's voice was low. "He's disgusting. Even for a non-human."

"But- back to the point, you do actually know who that someone is. The someone you said who aims to tear the Mafia Regime and create their own." The Vongola laughed and Bermuda thought there was a tinge of melancholy. "It wasn't easy all this time, you know."

Bermuda was quiet. He didn't know what to say. The silence sunk in the room and he wished it would be like this for a while, but the Vongola had quickly chucked the papers onto his hand and murmured. "There's nothing to do about Mafia Law now, just your stake or their stake on the Tri-Ni-Set. And Bermuda sir, even if we had nearly fought each other to death, I'd rather you still hold on to them."

"You aided- in a way- to allow me to get back at Kawahira and now as well, you willingly risk your life. The Vindice will step in." Bermuda said, his features and expressions hidden in the shadows of the moonlight. He then looked at the tea and the Vongola smiled candidly at him.

"My Guardians are not weak." The Vongola then coughed as Natsu mewed.

"I know." Bermuda opened the window and disappeared. "Thank you, young Vongola."

"No, thank you for accompanying me. It has gotten rather lonely in the mansion after all."

Somewhere in the sky, his partner finally stated. "I do not really understand what has transpired."

Bermuda stared into the distance. "You don't have to. It was just a necessity to meet him in order to stop them." He clenched the papers tightly.

They both knew, Bermuda and the Vongola, that the Vongola himself would not last past tonight. The fiasco had gone long enough after all. Bermuda then thought how the Vongola's smile seemed so youthful and pitiful all at the same time. It somewhat dawned on him that the Vongola was always Sawada Tsunayoshi, who after all started all these at the young age of fourteen.

He said nothing and Jaegar didn't press on further.

In the mansion, it was deathly quiet, but he could hear the soft movements on the floorboards. More intuition, than senses.

"Bye Natsu. Surely we'll see each other someday." The Vongola pressed his lips onto the furry forehead. For that moment, he would let himself become Sawada Tsunayoshi, the boy who wanted to live, the boy who wished for some occasional ordinary, just a dame-Tsuna who once lived in Namimori; and let a bit of the tears to fall. Until the door would creak open that was, then he would die as Vongola Decimo.

"Ah, I would miss you guys so much. i hope Reborn doesn't scold me too much on this."

* * *

Little Tsuna opened his eyes and yawned. Ryohei was beside him and grinned. Apparently, Yamamoto and Gokudera were nigh hysterical over Bester having Tsuna in its mouth and they opted to watch the Varia with a close eye. There were still the CEDEF members too, but Hibari restrained them up good. Lambo had gone to get rid of his excessive nails and hair. That left Ryohei to do the babysitting since Dino was reluctantly dragged along by Romario to comb the area once more for potential atackers.

"So you're awake to the extreme huh?" He said, smiling wide. He thought he hadn't grinned this hard since Sawada died. Tsuna giggled and looked at him, tilting his head.

"Oh, my name is Ryohei! You always call me Onii-san in private though." He felt his nose sting a little and he lifted his head back. No time for tears, that was not manly to the extreme. Kyoko would always do the crying.

"Onii-cha?" Tsuna tried to call him.

Ryohei chuckled. "That is so cute to the extreme!" Tsuna being a child, had difficulty in grasping words if they were spoken too fast, but he was rather empathetic for a child and he laughed along to Ryohei's positive reaction.

"You know, Sawada, I went back to Namimori after you were gone, but all doesn't really sit right. Kyoko was crying so much, I didn't know what to do. You are very precious to her because I have never seen her smile so genuinely in front of others as she does to you." Ryohei felt something smoulder within, like it was too much. "Actually when they said that the Decimo possibly had a child- I know I was the first to defend Kyoko and you, but I never actually knew what was going on and it really sucks to the extreme.

Ryohei didn't know why he was rambling. They had a lot of shenanigans going for hours and it probably shoved aside all the things he wanted to say initially . Ultimately, it all welled up within and he had to spill before he exploded.

 _Because it really hurt a lot._ It really hurt a lot losing a younger brother. It really hurt that he couldn't even do anything for his younger brother.

"I really like how you look at me with those eyes like Kyoko, even when you're an adult. They are eyes of the ones looking to an elder brother and somehow you just became part of my family. You even said that I was the best older brother and I was elated. So you know, it was like a blow to the gut to the extreme when you just went like that…" Ryohei rubbed the sleeve on his eyes. "I am not the emotional kind of guy, but I really wanted to tell you this to the extreme for the longest."

Tsuna grasped his bandaged fingers with his small hands and gazed to the older man. Ryohei widened his eyes for a second and then laughed. "You are looking at me in the same way again. I really believe you are Sawada." He recalled the pillar of flame as he lifted the boy to hug him. "And I will protect you properly this time round to the extreme."

"Pain, pain fly away!" Tsuna chanted softly beside Ryohei's ear in reply. The man called Gokudera made the same face earlier and he was better when Tsuna said that. Ryohei's bigger frame just trembled a little as he continued having Tsuna in an embrace. A few more minutes and he would have to inform the others that Tsuna was up, he would stay like that until then.

At that moment, the sun burning within didn't seem so harsh anymore. It was just warm in the vast blue sky.

* * *

"Verde, I have been wanting to ask you more about the sample I gave you." Reborn currently stood by the port. The ships slowly moving into various positions.

"What samples?" Verde did not sound the least bit amused.

"This is not the time to play daft! The ones that you said were Dame-Tsuna's hair." Reborn might nearly break his cell if not for the fact that Verde was still on the line and he hadn't got his desired answer.

"I received no such samples from you, Reborn. And why would you want DNA from the Vongola's hair?"

Reborn was stunned for a second. "You received no such samples? I barged into your lab two days ago, you were there."

"Yes. Am I saying this twice? Wait, you did? Have you clearly gone senile or something? I knew babysitting wasn't the right job for you." Verde snorted on the other end, but he sounded not quite his confident self.

"I called you less than 24 hours ago!"

"And 24 hours ago, I was still in China." Reborn could hear frantic typing and the distinct whirl of machines on the other end. "I am not the type to snitch on others and I wouldn't care less about anyone's safety, but there's something amiss about Fon and I cannot deny that I am a little-"

There was a short pause.

"What?" Reborn urged hastily.

"You did come in."

"Yes, I certainly did."

"There is a foreign person on the monitor. Oh I am irked. Yes, I am irked. Irked indeed." Verde continued in sporadic statements. "Someone… tampered with my malware, hacked into all my codes and as for you, messed your mind, Reborn." Verde dared sound fearful, even only a little.

Reborn felt something snaking and writhing in his gut. A light chill stroked down his spine and he was sure it had nothing to do with the ocean breeze.

"Can you track that fucker?"

Verde paused. "There is clear pacifier strung on their neck."

"The Vindice?" And Reborn narrowed his eyes.

* * *

 **And we are getting closer to mystery man! Sorry, had to usher the story along so domestic fluffy feelings will be later. Thank you for the support!**


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